


Hawk Moth: the Conclusion

by AKA (TyeDyeBoogers)



Series: Hawk Moth: The Chronicles [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Emilie Agreste Lives, Emilie Agreste is Not a good person, F/M, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Being an Idiot, Happy Ending, Hurt, I am as bad at tagging as I am at naming, I am so sorry, It Gets Better?, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, It's been 10 years, Let's play whack-a-mole with reality, Might get worse first, Minor Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Not Canon Compliant, Sad, Sad with a Happy Ending, Strong Language, This is not how you mother, and an even worse mother, gabriel agreste dies, master fu is still the guardian, minor appearance from the class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24345904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TyeDyeBoogers/pseuds/AKA
Summary: Hawkmoth finally gets his wish. This is the story of what happens next. After all, with the power to alter reality at his fingertips he could do anything. If he weren't cursed.(builds off the ideas from Hawk Moth: a Retrospective which you wouldn't necessarily have to read to understand this but it would make this author very happy)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nathalie Sancoeur, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Series: Hawk Moth: The Chronicles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1757872
Comments: 80
Kudos: 65





	1. Hawk Moth chooses

**Author's Note:**

> This is my own imagining of one way that things could happen. As soon as I read the question I just knew that this had to be written, so I thank [SilverWhisperer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWhisperer/works) for this idea, and I am so sorry. This is probably not what you were expecting.

It took more than he had ever dreamed that it would. It took nearly everything of him to get this wish. The wish that would finally free him of the curse from Emilie. It would free them all. It took his heart, nearly broke it in two. When Nathalie took up the very miraculous that had ended Emilie, Gabriel was sure that he would lose her too. He would never wish to change her, it was that spirit that he loved so much, but there is a part of him that felt his heart freeze in his chest the first time he heard her as Mayura. The thought for sure that he would lose her and with her, his heart. Luckily, they were able to recover the book and restore the peacock miraculous before she succumbed to the same fate as Emilie.

That horrid witch was still stuck in Snow White coffin waiting for this, waiting for the moment when he could bring the woman back. The moment when he could finally be free from the constant pain in his chest where the curse settled and made every breath burn as he held the two miraculous and didn't make the wish. The moment when he would be free from the ghost of Emilie that hung over everything he did. He just never thought of how much it would take to sate the curse.

Like his son. Gabriel never wanted his son caught up in this mess too. How could he have known that his own son was Chat Noir. He should have known. The day he found out, something in Gabriel broke. Nathalie found him in the corner of the lair covered in the softly fluttering butterflies. The tears dripped silently down his cheeks, slipping down his neck as he let them free fall not bothering to wipe them away. He had been listlessly leaning, head lolling back against the wall. Unable to face the implications this knowledge had wrought. She settled next to him brushing the butterflies away in order to rest her head on his shoulder. Her fingers slid between his in a reassuring grip. The only thing that kept him tethered through the memories. The memories of every time that Chat Noir was hurt by one of his Akumas, every time that his own son had been hurt under the hand of this damnable compulsion.

It was only too easy to then get the ring from the boy, but it took him ages to be able to take it. It was almost as if the curse could tell. The pain that lanced through his chest would not be sated until the ring was securely in his grasp. Finally, he took it one night when the boy was fast asleep, briefly halting the curse's reminders.

Getting the Ladybug's miraculous was easier after the cat had been removed from play. She was quite resourceful but eventually she fell, and the earrings became his. It almost felt too easy after everything. After all this time it shouldn’t have been so easy. Yet, here he was with both miraculous.

Gabriel glanced to the dainty earrings and solid ring resting in his palm, the metal warmed from the heat of his skin. Nooroo settled on his shoulder a light weight, that was begging him not to go through with it. The high-pitched little voice almost soothing in its regularity as he tried and tried to talk Gabriel out of this choice. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could change his mind now.

This choice was the only one he could make. He was ready now. He knew what he had to do. As sorry as he was that it had come to this, there was also no other choice that could be made. He just hoped that they could forgive him. Eventually.

There was a light tap-tap-tap of footsteps on the metal grate catwalk that spanned the chasm between the elevator the lair and the garden of hell. The sound of them echoed through the cavernous space as Nathalie drew near.

"Nooroo," Gabriel looked down at the little purple moth. "Please," was all he said to silence the kwami.

Nathalie stepped up beside him where he stood staring at the time-frozen form of his 'wife'. The glass top shined in the bright florescent lights that lit the huge room. They stood, in silence, the most powerful miraculous of all clasped tightly in his hand.

"Nathalie," Gabriel shifted to look at the woman. He took his time just observing her delicate features as she looked back at him. He reached up to gently cup her cheek. His thumb brushed over the soft curve of her cheekbone. Her own hand raised to rest on against his chest, just over his heart. There were so many feelings in him, not the least of which was relief and regret. Relief that this was nearly over and regret that this was how it had to end.

"Nathalie, there's something I'm going to need you to do something for me." He paused. "You need to make sure these" he lifted his hand, "get back to who they should be with."

"You mean Adrien and that girl?"

"Yes, Emilie must not get her hands on them. Ever." His gaze flickered over to the glass coffin. His lips turned down in a resigned frown. Her fingers clenched the lapel of his jacket, holding him like an anchor. Gabriel looked back to her sorrow in his gaze.

"Of course," she whispered. Her hand uncurled from the fabric to slide up from his chest to mirror his, her fingers curving around his jaw. "Gabriel?"

He felt the tears building so he closed his eyes. He took a shaky breath before he opened his eyes to see Nathalie's worried expression. His fingers moved to brush her hair back behind her ear, the red strands bright and vibrant. He pressed a kiss to her forehead, soft and light like a butterfly's. It felt like goodbye. It was goodbye.

He moved back letting his hand fall away from her warm cheek. As he moved her own hand fell free and it felt like little pieces of his heart pulled free with it. That's okay, he was leaving his heart with her anyway.

"Gabriel?" Nathalie stepped after him, her hands capturing his face to draw him down into a kiss like fire, like trying to hold on to smoke. Gabriel leaned into her hold kissing her back with every ounce of his being, he put all of the feelings in his heart into the kiss, hoping that she could feel them if only for one last time. When they pulled apart, there were tears in her eyes, glittering like morning dew on her lashes.

"There are two letters on my desk," Gabriel brushed her tears away with careful fingers. "After we're done here," he stopped to let out a heavy breath. His next breath in was a bit shaky. He couldn't finish that statement. The tips of his fingers trailed her cheek as if memorizing the feel of it. Then he was gone, stepping away from her again, his fingers curling into a fist.

"What? Gabriel?" Nathalie moved to follow him, but his outstretched palm halted her.

Gabriel walked through the grass, lush and green and soft under his feet, to the middle of the butterfly garden where his little chair and table sat. Curling his fingers around the miraculous in his hand, he reached up to take off the pin of the Butterfly. Nooroo fluttered before his face pleading still more as Gabriel pulled the little pin free.

"Nooroo, I am sorry." He reached out one finger to brush the little kwami's head. Nooroo looked up at him tears in his big kwami eyes and little purple hands holding onto Gabriel's fingertip, " I renounce you."

At this the little kwami was swept back into the pin, it shifted color back to purple with the butterfly wings appearing in the side. He placed the pin on the small table, the pale wings soft and nebulous under his touch. He turned away uncurling his fingers to reveal the miraculous in his hand. Picking up the ring he slipped it onto a finger, it's color flashing to silver and spitting out a little black kwami. The little black cat gasped staring up at him before mumbling something that sounded disparaging, but Gabriel wasn't listening. He reached up and affixed the earrings, which revealed a little red kwami. As soon as she appeared, she flew straight to the little black one.

He could feel the powers even now without being transformed. Both of them, the black cat and the ladybug, were the two sides of the coin. Creation and destruction. The two exact aspects that he needed. To create something must also be destroyed. He knew that by making this choice there was no going back. This was the way it had to end. He would appease the curse and final be free.

"Come here, please." He held up his hands for the kwamis. They flew marginally closer but did not take the offering of his hands. "I know what you would say to me and I have made my choice. I am sorry, but it must be done." The little red kwami went to speak, only Gabriel spoke before she could. "I know the cost and I gladly make it."

Gabriel looked over to where Nathalie stood still by the catwalk. Her hands were clasped tightly together and tucked under her chin.

"I know the cost," he whispered as he forced himself to turn away. He would not be able to make this choice without looking away. He couldn't look at her and make this choice, knowing the cost.

He made the wish.

There was a flash of light colorless and yet so full of color it was as if there was a prism at the center splitting the light into rainbows as it burned so bright, vision was lost for a moment. Nathalie had look away and shield her eyes. When the light had faded, she looked back to where Gabriel stood. He turned back a half-formed turn, his head turning over his shoulder to see her, his gaze falling on her with a ghost of a smile on his lips.

He froze, head part way turned. It was like his body was caught in a moment of time. Then it started. Like sand caught in the wind Gabriel's form dissolved into little flecks of light. They swirled up into the air and away. The miraculous for the cat and ladybug dropped to the grass of the garden where he had been standing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This started out as a really sad one shot conclusion to Hawk Moth: a Retrospective, and it has now become a multichaptered fic. Such is my life.


	2. Hawk Moth gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Does the world stop existing when your heart stops beating?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so, so, so much to my beta.

"Gabriel," the cry tore from her throat as she dashed to the spot he had been standing. She fell to her knees scooping up the miraculous as great tears spilled down her cheeks. "No," She screamed curling her fingers around the earrings and ring pulling her hands to her chest she cried. The tears dripped free, hot, and heavy, they fell to the ground like rain, splattering on the lenses of her glasses, and darkening the knees of her slacks. 

A sound came from behind Nathalie. She twisted to see nearly falling over in her haste, blinking to try to see through her tears. Thump. A pale delicate hand hit the inside of the top of the glass coffin before it was blurred by her tears. 

"It worked," Nathalie breathed the words aloud into the empty silence of the garden, but then she had known that already. She had known the moment she watched the man she loved disappear. All in service of that, woman. 

_Thud_ . _Thud_ . _Thud_. The sound came from the coffin again. Emilie, no doubt commanding her release. 

Nathalie pushed herself to her feet, wobbling a little as all she really wanted to do was curl up and cry, which left her body feeling weak and drained. She grabbed the butterfly pin from the table and stuffed all the miraculous into her pocket. She pulled her glasses off as tears still spilled down her cheeks but slower now. She pulled at the bottom of her turtleneck and used the edge to dry her glasses. Tucking them, now dry on top of her head she rubbed away the rest of her tears. She pulled her jacket straight and squared her shoulders. 

"For you Gabriel," She said to the underground garden, perhaps wishing that somehow, he could still hear her. She walked over to the coffin her feet steadying with each step and hit the release button. There was a hiss of pressure venting. The lid swung up and open revealing a scowling Emilie. The blonde pushed herself out and promptly fell to the floor like a parody of the day that landed her in that tomb. Her body was weak from disuse and unable to hold her weight. 

Nathalie looked down her nose at the other woman. 

"Congratulations, you won." She said. Emilie scowled up at Nathalie, her mouth opened to say something. Before she could Nathalie turned away. She walked across the catwalk to the elevator standing tall and fighting tears. She didn't look back, not even at the indignant call of the blonde. Should she feel bad leaving the weakened woman there alone? Probably. But that would not bring Gabriel back. He was gone and it was all that woman's fault. That was a trade that Nathalie would never have made. 

She rose through the floor of the atelier to bright sunlight filling the room in a painful glare. She squinted in the light, which was a stark contrast to the underground florescent lighting. That bright sunlight glinted off the shining marble floor and brightening the room even more. It was the kind of light that left you squinting regardless of how long you were in it. Clutching at her arms she turned away from the windows and the blinding sunlight. Its heat could not warm her now. 

Nathalie moved past her desk, exiting the room with numb hands. The house felt still, quiet, like the house was holding its breath, as if the house could hold back the terrible truth. Her steps, soft as they were, echoed through empty foyer. She had always felt that the room was oversized, but that's what Gabriel liked about it so much, the way that sound echoed even a quiet whisper. 

The door to Gabriel's office was silent under her touch. The room was a riot of bad taste. How Gabriel could tolerate the truly hideous combinations of patterns and ridiculously lacking interior designs done by Emilie, Nathalie would never know. He kept the striped walls and checked floors, seemingly inured to the eye searing atrocity of the combinations, even after she was gone. He just couldn't justify the expense of redoing them just for the sake of ridding the building of the memories. 

She moved behind Gabriel's desk still littered with the detritus of his job, half-finished designs stacked among printed mock-ups and old memos. He would never organize his desk again. He wouldn't throw papers into careless stacks that hadn't even been sorted to then call her later complaining that he couldn’t find a damn thing. Her eyes closed against the tears. 

There on top of it all sat two envelopes. They were so precisely placed, neatly placed on the riot of papers, one before the other. The thick papered envelopes sat there so innocently, the elegant curve of Gabriel's handwriting on the fronts staring up at her. The tears burned in her eyes again. One read _Adrien_ , the other _Nathalie_. Reaching out one trembling hand she picked up the envelope with her name. She sank slowly down into the chair as the tears came again, knowing that he would never walk this room again, sit in this chair. 

He would never do anything again. He would never take her hand as they watched the sunset turn the sky brilliant colors. He would never wrap his arm around her waist and hold her close. He would never talk to his son again. He would never see that beautiful strong boy grow into an amazing man. He would never get to grow old and happy and free. 

"Nathalie?" The question came from the doorway. Adrien stood in there, shifting on his feet. Nathalie looked up from behind her hands, tears still streaming through red-rimmed eyes. Adrien's eyes widened. He nearly ran to her side when he saw her crying. "Nathalie, what's wrong?" 

"Adrien," she looked at the boy, quickly reaching up to wipe away the tears. But the more she looked at the boy the more she cried. Gabriel would never be able to see this young man ever again, and he would never get to see his father again. Adrien reached her side, his face etched with worry. She dropped the envelope with her name back on to the desk, which let her look away from Adrien long enough to scrabble together enough composure to say, "there's something you need to know." 

She stood and pulled the boy into a hug. He was so big she didn't need to bend over to hug him anymore. Adrien hugged her back, reveling in the rare moment unaware that she was about to break his world. Smoothing his hair with a shaking hand, she didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to hurt him like this. 

"It's your father," Nathalie placed her hands on his shoulders, already so broad, and pushed back so she could look into his eyes. "Adrien, he's - he's gone." 

Adrien jerked back, pulling himself from under her hands as he did so, disbelief in his voice, "What?" 

The tears fell from already sore eyes. Nathalie furiously wiped them away. "I'm so sorry, Adrien." 

The boy sank slowly into the chair, his father's chair, he looked up at her the tears pooling in his eyes making them waver in the light. She had to look away from his plaintive look. She couldn't bring Gabriel back, no matter how much Adrien wanted this to be some big horrible joke, no matter how much she wished this were all some horrible joke. She picked up the Adrien envelope, flicking the tab open to drop the black cat miraculous inside. She turned back to him and sank into a crouch in the small space between the chair and the desk. 

"He left this for you," she held it out for him. Adrien's eyes focused on the scrawl of his father's handwriting. He took the thick paper and its message carefully, as if his touch would make it break and disappear falling away from fingers too harsh. She stood. One hand reaching out to smooth back the hair the falling into his eyes. Then she was gone striding from the room. There was no way for her to stay there, no way at all, watching Adrien crumble would only break her again, like pulling the bottom card and making the whole house fall. And yet, at the same time she didn’t want to leave him all alone with this terrible news. Glancing back, she saw the not so small form of Adrien behind the desk, head bowed no doubt looking at the letter. She closed the door behind her with a soft click. 

Nathalie stopped her arms wrapping about herself as if the grip could hold her together. This movement crinkled the envelope she had forgotten she had grabbed. No, she couldn't read it now. There were many things she had to deal with, not the least of which was the fact that eventually Emilie would regain her strength and figure out how to get out of the lair. 

Nathalie carefully tucked the envelope back into her jacket pocket. She made her way through the foyer and out to where Gorilla had the car ready to go. When the car pulled up to the bakery, Nathalie sat there staring out the window as she fiddled with the earrings in her palm. There was a grunt from the front seat. Nathalie looked up to catch the gaze of Gorilla in the rear view mirror. Her eyes fluttered closed. She tried to smile at the bodyguard but found that smiling was more than she could do. 

Sighing she pushed open the door and climb from the car breathing deep the warm sweet scent of the bakery. It was bracing and comforting in a way. If she could just do this quickly, then all would be set right, as right as it could be. The door jingled as she pushed it open making the bell over her head ring out into the empty bakery. The petite form of Sabine Cheng popped around from the back, her serene expression growing worried as she took in Nathalie's appearance. Damn, she should have checked herself better before coming inside. 

"Can I help you?" Sabine smiled warmly. 

"Yes, Ma'am. I believe your daughter dropped these," Nathalie dropped the earrings into the other woman's outstretched palm. 

"Oh my, these do look like hers. She'll be glad to have them back." Her hand dropped into the pocket of her apron. She called out stopping Nathalie's retreat, "But I must thank you, please, take a pastry. Anything you like, beside you look like you need it." Sabine came around the counter and ushered Nathalie to the display case before she realized what was happening. Thus, Nathalie left with a selection of macrons and a bemused feeling about what had just happened. 

She climbed back into the car just as she heard the girl, Marinette enter the store. She shut the door before she heard more and drove away. The light box of macrons felt so heavy in her lap, she placed the box down in the next seat, but the heaviness didn't leave. She sighed, all that was left was to lock away the butterfly and the peacock miraculous, perhaps she should just give them to Adrien. Maybe he could take them back to the guardian, that was where they belonged anyway. That was where Gabriel would want them, so no one like Emilie could get her hands on them again. 

Traffic was slowing the whole city to a crawl, leaving Gorilla grumbling and Nathalie thankful. She needed some time to get her thoughts in order before she made it back to the Agreste House. Before she found herself 'removed from the premises' as surely the newly returned Madame Agreste would be ordering. 

Her thoughts came back to the envelope with her name, still stuffed in her pocket. Reaching into her jacket she pulled the thick envelope free. She looked out at the city through the windows and felt the car idling around her. She looked at Gorilla in the front who did not seem to notice her at all, his eyes focused on the traffic around them. They were still quite stuck and quite a way from the Agreste Home. 

The envelope was thick and full, and she looked down at it in her hands she didn’t want to open it. Her hands shook as her fingertips traced the soft indentations of the shape of her name on the front. The tears brimmed again, the same as they had been, barely kept under control all day. Biting her lip, she forced a bracing breath to make them stop. Flipping the envelope over she pulled out the papers folded within. There were several. The inside page was free, but the rest had been stapled together. Pulling the first page free she could see that the bundle was a legal document. The _Gabriel_ Brand logo front and center. Her mouth fell open as she read the words. Nathalie was to be the head of _Gabriel_ , as legally recognized by that document. 

She turned to the first paper. No amount of what he could tell her would make this better. Making her head of the company would not bring him back. 

"Gabriel, you can't make this better" she growled dropping the document to the leather seat beside her. She still held the lone page, and she paused. She closed her eyes as she unfolded the paper. Peeking her eyes open she found Gabriel's last words for her, words that they had never actually said to each other. Just three little words. 

_I love you._

She didn't realize she was crying again until the tears hit the page leaving big round wet spots on the page and blurring the ink. She dropped the paper to fall on top of the others and buried her face in her hands and cried. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apparently, I like causing pain for my characters. I also understand that at this point in time this may not be what people want to read and that's cool. This will have a happy ending, because I think I am literally incapable of not having one so just bear with me.
> 
> If you really want to cry I suggest now, listening to this song [Je l'aime a Mourir by Frances Cabrel](https://youtu.be/bMZVtFCU0ZQ)


	3. Hawk Moth absent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien gets a letter from his dead father. He learns some mind-blowing things. He's in denial, which is not just a river in Egypt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A million thanks to my beta.

Adrien sat limply in the broad backed chair behind his fathers cluttered desk, the one place in the entire house that was even the slightest bit disorganized, that Adrien had ever seen. The letter sat heavy in his hands. No, Nathalie couldn’t be right. His father wasn't gone. There was no way that Gabriel Agreste was just gone. Adrien shook his head trying to shake free the thoughts. His father couldn't be gone. He looked back at the envelope. It was oddly weighted, there seemed to be something in the envelope other than just paper that made it pull towards the ground. Turning the envelope in his fingers, he flipped it open, and tipped toward his palm to dispense whatever it was holding. A black ring fell into his hand, the green paw print emblazoned on its face seemed to glow from within. The ring felt so heavy, heavier than normal, heavy with the truth. The truth that his father had the miraculous, his father was Hawkmoth. 

His mouth fell open moving as if to form words, what, how, but he stopped several times the motion only partially completed all sound caught somewhere deep inside. Dropping the envelope, the envelope on the desktop he picked up the ring and slipped it back onto his finger. Plagg popped out of the ring and did the most uncharacteristic thing- he hugged Adrien. Plagg didn’t speak or complain about not having cheese or anything he just settled as a comfortable weight on Adrien's shoulder, as the boy's mind raced. He had never understood how Hawkmoth could have gotten it without his even noticing, and now he knew. Everything slammed into place and it made sense. It made such awful sense. 

His father was Hawkmoth, the very villain that he had been fighting for years. His father was Hawkmoth. One hand raised to cover his mouth as he stared out into the liminal space before him slack jawed. 

Adrien blinked, refocusing his eyes, unsure of how much time had passed as he was lost in thought. His eyes zeroed in on the envelope, half off the front edge of the desk. Apparently, he hadn't gotten it on the desk all the way. The thick creamy colored paper taunted him. There was a message from his father, the man he had loved regardless of all the mistakes Gabriel made, only to find that same man was his sworn enemy. What could that man have to tell him, there was nothing that he could have say or write that could make this better. 

Regardless, Adrien found himself reaching for the letter. There was a folded piece of paper, just one, folded in three to fit inside. He pulled it free with shaking fingers, the empty envelope falling to the floor. He unfolded the paper, the swirling lines of his father's handwriting covering most of the page. His eyes skipped around the page seeing words and phrases without really reading them. His breath froze in this throat as he saw: I love you. His father had rarely, if ever, said that to him. No, this must be a bad joke. 

_Adrien, my dear boy._

_I've stopped and started this so many times. I don't know if I will ever have the right words to tell you. My time is running out so this will have to be my last._

_As you read this, I have done it and that means that I am now gone. It was the price of success, but I know that I can rest easy now. I know that you are safe, and you will be happy._

_You may never forgive me, and I think I can handle that because you are safe. Please know that I never wanted you to be caught up in this. I tried so hard to keep you safe, only to find that you had been a part of it all along._

_There is something you should know, if you haven't surmised by now. I was Hawkmoth. I was your enemy, but I never wanted to be. I just needed the wish. I needed the wish to free us, to finally set us free so that we could be happy. Now I realize that in order for that to happen, I am going to have to sacrifice much. I will gladly make this same choice as many times as it takes for you to be safe and happy._

_You may hate me, and I wouldn't blame you. It's my job as your father to keep you safe and I failed at this, time and time again, wreaking the chaos and destruction that I did as Hawkmoth. I can never take it back. However, you should also know that I ultimately did this for you. I did this because I love you, my son._

_This probably won't fix what I have broken, and I know that I have broken much between us, but maybe one day you can find it in your heart to forgive me._

_Even as I write this, I still cannot bring myself to tell you the truth, not the full truth, even as I know that soon I will be gone. I will not use my last message to you to disparage anyone. I have made my choices some of which I deeply regret but they are my choices. Which means I will not take your choices away from you. I cannot make my last act the act of a coward. Maybe one day you will learn the full truth. Maybe one day you might forgive me._

_I can only hope that my sacrifice is not done in vain. I return to you the miraculous that I once took. I know that you will only continue to be amazing, my son._

_I am sorry, for all that I have done._

_I love you, Adrien._

Adrien sat back, the letter falling from his numb fingers to float down onto the abandoned envelope below. His hands hung limply in the empty space between his knees, as his mind was a whirl with thoughts. 

His eyes burned as he looked out into the room, gaze falling on the cold fireplace set below the stairs. No, this had to be some sick joke, Hawkmoth was his father this had to be another one of the madman's ploys. Adrien shoved himself away from the desk, running away from the truth of the letter. His eyes lingered on the mantle. Along the mantle sat a row of pictures; these pictures were different than the rest of those scattered about the house. Adrien wandered over to the pictures, he'd never really looked at them before, not really having spent much time in his father's office. The pictures were in simple frames and showed forgotten scenes from Adrien's childhood. 

One picture showed Nathalie smiling in the foreground, her arms framing the bottom corners, with Adrien baby faced and laughing in his father's lap with sand all around them. The next picture was old and faded, stained by time as a glowing Gabriel smiled down at the little swaddled form of baby Adrien in his arms. Another picture was more candid. It showed Gabriel kneeling down and comforting a crying Adrien, who had skinned his knee. He didn't remember that incident but the look he saw on the face of his father in that photo was warm and caring, it was the face of the father he was afraid he didn't have. His father was not good at showing emotion. 

Adrien pivoted on his heel and strode from the room, one hand pressing at the base of his nose, forcing the tears back inside. Stopped just short of the main doors, not sure why he had gone even that far. Some small part of him wanted to run away, but the other more prominent part stopped him. 

Adrien turned away from the doors. He shoved his hands through his hair, clutching at the blond strands. The house was empty and still. It unnerved the boy. Dropping his hands free from his hair, one rubbed at his jaw which brought the open door to the atelier into focus. 

The room was brightly lit from the sunlight streaming through the floor to ceiling windows. He glanced about, seeing the pictures of him covering two of the walls for what they really were for the first time. A mask. The pictures in this room were all shots from his modelling, fake pictures of fake smiles in Gabriel brand clothes. The real pictures his father kept in his office where he would see them every day where the real man hid away using the guise of _Gabriel_ to keep the pain out, hide the caring man underneath. He wished he had gotten to know the real man better. Adrien has seen him peeking through the cracks in the mask of Gabriel, through the years. He had tried in the last few years, probably bolstered by his successes as Hawkmoth, but he had tried. He reached out to Adrien, and Adrien had reached back feeling like his father could finally see him. They were mending, because his father loved him. Loved him so much he kept the precious memories close to his heart, there on the mantle in his personal office. Now, now, he was just gone? No, Adrien refused to believe it. 

Adrien walked into the atelier stopping at the edge of the sunken catwalk. His eyes trailed the length of it. He had learned how to walk a runway on this one, it started as a game when he was a little kid as he watched his father test his fashion week designs, and he wanted to be a part of it. He had wanted his father’s attention. The girls had thought he was adorable and showed little Adrien how to do it, taking turns to hold his hands and guide him. Gabriel had smiled softly behind the dress that he was altering, but Adrien had seen it anyway. He smiled at the memory. His smile fell as Nathalie's words and the letter swam through his mind dropping him hard back in reality. One hand rose to press against his forehead. 

_Whirr_. Adrien looked up at the sound. The sound like machinery, the slow grind of gears in motion. It ground up from the floor by the huge painting of his mother. That painting was honestly the image of her that came to his mind when he thought of her, though he would also catch the fleeting memory of her smile. But his memories had faded in the passage of time, it had been so long now, and the absence of her memory in the house. He could no longer recall the exact shade of her hair unless he was looking at her picture. 

There before that painting, a hole opened up in the floor, and Adrien watched wide eyed as a form rose out of the floor. First came the blonde head quickly followed by the rest of her. The woman fell to the floor as soon as the disc she was on merged seamlessly with the rest. Without any form of wall, she couldn’t support her weight. 

"Hey, " Adrien knelt by the woman, reaching out a steadying hand to touch her shoulder. "Are you ok-" His words fell off as the woman turned to look at him, the face before him an uncanny reproduction of the one high up on the wall behind her. "Mo-mother?" 

It made sense. It all made sense is a sick kind of way. His father had been Hawkmoth and he had made the wish. Ten years. Ten years and now she was back. 

"Adrien?" She asked, voice a bit creaky with disuse. That didn’t matter, her voice sounded like memories, tinted amber and honey as though through the sepia tones of fond memories. It had been so long since he had last seen her, hear her voice say his name. A cool hand cupped his cheek. He looked up into the glittering and very much real eyes of his mother. He took her in, tears burning at the backs of his eyes. The haughty line of her nose was the same as her painting, which was much blunted on his face but still so much like his. He could see the shades of his own face in the one before him. Their eyes the exact same shade of green. This was most definitely his mother. 

"How are -how are you here?" He reached out his fingers touching the back of her hand that rested on his cheek, so light as if afraid he might break her or that she would disintegrate from that simple little touch. When she remained as solidly there as before he grew more sure. 

"I don't know, my boy," She looked away from him, eyes flickering down. "I don't know what happened to me." 

"You are back now." 

Her fingers brushed at the sharper panes of his face, no longer rounded by youth. The subtle changes that time had wrought. The feeling of little hairs new to his jaw. He was not the same child he had been when she had left. 

"How long has it been?" 

"Ten years," Adrien took her hand and gripped it tightly. 

"Ten years?" she repeated his words her voice shooting up in surprise. She looked down at her hand in her lap blinking hard. 

"Oh, you must be tired and hungry." 

"Hmm?" Emilie looked up at her now grown son, her eyes refocusing. "Oh, yes. I should like to rest, I think." 

Adrien helped her to her feet, his arm falling around her to help support her weight. She seemed so light and frail to his touch. So different but so familiar at the same time. He helped her upstairs and into the master bedroom, a room that he hadn't seen since the night she disappeared. 

This was too weird. Adrien stopped at the banister, just outside side the closed door. The banister was cool to his touch, it was a reminder of calm things. He needed that right now because he was angry. His jaw clenched every muscle standing taught, his fingers curling white-knuckled around the banister. That bastard. His breath huffed out sharply as pushed himself away from the rail hard. He stalked away to his room. The door slamming shut behind him so hard he heard the wall shake. 

Adrien kept going until his fist connected with the heavy bag hanging from the underside of his balcony. The bag swung hard making the chains jangle. He hit it again and again. His knuckles turned red and raw, the skin splitting and leaving little smears of his blood invisible on the black surface of the bag until it caught the light just so. 

"What’s wrong, kid?" Plagg asked. He was floating just over Adrien's right shoulder, close enough to be heard but also far enough away that he wouldn’t accidentally get caught in Adrien’s back swing. 

"What's wrong? You ask me what's wrong Plagg?" His voice rose and shredded on the kwami's name. He spun around arms flung wide to face the little kwami. "Gee, let me think." Adrien's hands touched his forehead before dropping down, every move tight and controlled. "How about the fact that my father is Hawkmoth. Our archnemesis for the past nine fucking years is my own father. My father is fucking Hawkmoth. And now, my mother is suddenly back after ten years. Like where the hell has she been all this time? What did my father do to her? 

"And there is this letter, this absolute crap, where he's claiming that he did all of this for me. For me! Where even is he? Where is he in all of this, shouldn't Hawkmoth be gloating over all of us now that he won, and he got his fucking wish?" His fist connected with the bag again, his barely dry knuckles bleeding freely as the impact cracked the scabs open again. Pushing one sore hand into his hair, he tilted his head back breathing harshly fighting the tears. His fingers slid through his hair leaving blood there unbeknownst to the boy. His head dropping down to rest on the musty smelling bag. It smelled like sweaty leather, and blood, sharp and fresh. 

"Kid," Plagg trailed off, not knowing what to say. 

"Fuck him. "Adrien pushed off the bag leaving it swinging viciously back and forth jangling on its chains. The young man stalked to drop face first on his ginormous white couch. "Seriously, Plagg, fuck him. The bastard finally won, and I let it happen.

“God, how did I never know? I mean I suspected back in the beginning but then he got akumatized so it couldn't have been. Right? Wrong, apparently. My own father was the massive asshole terrorizing all of Paris all these years." 

He groaned and rolled over, looking sadly up at his kwami. 

"But seriously, I thought he be cackling over the whole city by now. Where is he?" 

"That's the thing, kid." Plagg floated over Adrien's face rubbing his little paws together, his little eyebrows drawn in a deep furrow. "He's gone. He was the price of the wish." 

Adrien's brows drew together, and he frowned. "What are you talking about Plagg?" 

"He really is gone. He made a wish and the price of that wish was his life." 

"No," Adrien sat up, his hands falling flat on the cushions. "No, that can't be right." 

"I'm sorry Adrien." 

The words echoed what Nathalie said to him earlier. It was like some sick puzzle piece just falling into place. His father was Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth made a wish. His mother was back. His father was dead. His father really was dead. They had been doing so much better. Adrien had thought that he and his father had finally turned a corner. All along he was Hawkmoth, but they had been doing so much better. Gabriel had let him in again, and now he was gone. He really was gone. That letter was his last goodbye. 

Adrien lashed out, his foot connecting with the low table sending it crashing across the room to tumble into the TV stand causing the TV to rock a little but not fall. He dropped his head into his hands and felt the tears burning. He could not stop them, he did not try to stop them, and they burned over. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter had the working title of "Adrien is a salty shit" if that makes you feel any better....
> 
> And if you aren't reading it already, you should read [Whatever our desserts by fleurjaune](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24594931/chapters/59408809) because it is amazing!


	4. Hawk Moth banished

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel is still Gabriel, even when dead. Emilie is not happy that Nathalie exists. Poor Adrien is stuck in the middle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A million and one thanks to my beta!

It was obvious the moment she walked in the door. The air of the house had a different feel. One that she knew, remembered all too well, even after all the intervening the years. Emilie was back. So, it seemed the horrid woman had made it out from the garden and back to the real world. Was it bad of her to hope that Emilie would have never figured it out, possibly. Did she really care, not really. Emilie was responsible for everything that had happened to Paris in the last ten years.

Nathalie shut the door, behind her, and she paused to lean back against it. She closed her sore eyes and just breathed for a moment. She knew that she didn't have long now. Emilie was back and thus it was only a matter of time before she started asserting her control.

The Atelier door was partially open, but the room was quite empty she found. Walking slowly into the room her eyes skipped over her own desk, rarely used, to the raised platform where Gabriel would edit his designs for the runway. There was a small note stuck to the screen, the clumsy sprawl of Gabriel's handwriting when he was in a hurry. She had always thought it funny, and a little endearing, that Gabriel could write in beautiful copperplate most of the time but when he was distracted or in a hurry, his handwriting became nearly illegible swoops and swirls.

Clicking on the screen as the note bid, she found a little blinking notification. Of course, Gabriel had left directions. She rolled her eyes, a sad smile tugging at one corner of her mouth. She dialed the number from memory. It was a quick conversation. She hung up the phone, looking down at the device in her hand.

"Nathalie?" His voice was a weary parody of earlier. She looked up to see Adrien leaning on the edge of the closed door. She was surprised she hadn't heard him. His eyes were red and there were smears of blood on his cheeks. Her heart shot into her throat, her eyes taking every bit of him frantically as she moved toward him searching for the source of the blood. She noticed the broken knuckles, and the weary way he drooped.

"Adrien, what did you do to yourself?" She chided softly as she ushered him across the entryway to the dining room, where there was a comfortable couch. She’ll never understand why the atelier couldn’t be a normal room and have actual places to sit. "You've got blood on your face."

"Oh," He looked surprised and glanced down to his hands and saw the blood there. "Shit. "

She dropped her chin and raised an eyebrow over the lenses of her glasses at the boy for his use of profanity.

"Sorry," he amended looking abashed. He looked down at his cracked knuckles. His gaze seemed to lose focus the longer he stared. Nathalie returned carrying a damp cloth and the first aid kit, much like she had for his father many times.

"Did you want something?" She watched him carefully as he wiped at his face. She leaned back to perch on the arm of the other chair, her fingers digging in the first aid kit for disinfectant. Adrien looked up, his eyes were red rimmed and suspiciously shiny.

"He really is gone, " the intonation felt unfinished. Nathalie swallowed thickly feeling the tears burn at her already exhausted eyes.

"Yes." She leaned forward focusing on swiping the little alcohol swab over the broken skin. He hissed as the alcohol burned.

"He was Hawkmoth," The resignation on his face, sent a stab of pain into her heart. She nodded mutely. "Which means you were Mayura?"

She nodded again, reaching up to brush away one stray tear. She took his other hand carefully as she applied antiseptic ointment on the splits along his knuckles.

"Which also means that you know -"

"Yes, I do." She stopped him before he finished that statement. She wasn’t sure why, but that knowledge felt like it still needed guarded.

There was a knock on the door. Both turned to see M. Malgré-Pont, Gabriel's lawyer. The slight man entered the room after his curly flop of hair. He smiled ruefully at the two.

"Ah Coco, that was fast." Only the slight flare of her eyes denoted her surprise. Nathalie straightened and met the shorter man halfway, shaking his hand in greeting.

"Yes, I do wish these were better circumstances. However, I have been expecting this call for a while. I thought it best to deal with things quickly. " His voice was soft and soothing, and it seemed to carry a constant laugh. He moved towards the empty table, to click open his briefcase and pull out stacks of paperwork. "M. Agreste has been preparing for this eventuality. Now, I know that this must be hard but it's better if we get this done sooner rather than later."

Adrien looked to Nathalie who nodded. She held out her hand as if to guide Adrien over to the lawyer, before seating herself. Once he was sure that he had their attention the lawyer spoke.

"M. Agreste has indicated here that should he be found to be missing for longer than the duration of one year, he is to be declared legally dead at such time and thus his will shall be presented and settled. Until such time all personal funds shall be held in escrow exempting a small amount of funds for your daily living expenses.

"As indicated here, through this document, you Mlle. Sancœur, are now to be the head of _Gabriel_ Brand until such time as the will has been presented and - " this was how it went. The endless spew of legalize as Coco explained that Gabriel had taken care of everything. Nathalie, sat numb, as the realization that Gabriel knew he was going to die for this, and he never told her hit her like a sack of bricks. She looked to Adrien over the careless curls of the lawyer swaying back and forth as he spoke gesticulating to illustrate whatever point he was making; there she saw the same dawning realization in his haggard eyes.

It didn't take much longer for the lawyer to finish up explaining the precautions set by Gabriel and go about packing up his papers. Nathalie moved across the space to sink down next to Adrien, offering him a hand. Adrien took it gratefully. It felt better, a tether linking the two of them together which kept them from drifting in the endless waves of emotion. It was hard to keep grounded when the only thing you wanted to do was curl into a ball and cry.

Time passed quicker than they thought the sunlight falling through the windows growing the warm golden honey of late evening and dimming, before the lawyer had finished. He bid them a good day before leaving back out the door. It was as the sounds of his steps faded that Adrien turned to Nathalie. His mouth worked but no words came out. He dropped her hand to throw his arms around her, his head falling onto her shoulder. She wrapped her arms around him and held him close, tucking him like a momma bunny, and trying not to cry.

They stayed holding tightly to each other. Using the moment as a brief respite. They sought comfort from each other to ease the tempestuous seas of pain and grief they were both struggling though. Like boats tossed hard on the waves, they clung to each other, just for a moment, hoping that they wouldn’t capsize and drown.

Thwack. Something hit the floor hard in the entryway. Adrien's head shifted to look toward the door. Nathalie's too in a way that was reminiscent of a meerkat.

"Mme. Agreste?" came the slightly confused voice of the lawyer through the open door. Though admittedly the lawyer always sounded slightly confused, which he often used to lull his opponents into a false sense of security, this time he sounded genuinely confused.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" came the imperious voice, clear and carrying.

"I take it you also know that my mother is back?" Adrien asked, when Nathalie didn't react to the sound of Emilie's voice. Nathalie only sighed deeply and nodded. "He really did it."

Adrien tightened his arms giving her a quick squeeze before unwinding and pulling away. His scabbed-up knuckles rubbed across his eyes, brushing away the tears that Nathalie hadn't even noticed. He moved with the long-legged gait of teenager still growing too fast even though it had been years since he was a teenager. Even now as he stood taller than her, the boy was still growing into a young man. He would settle into his body soon enough.

There was faint conversation coming from the foyer. She could recognize the sound of Emilie's voice regardless of the time that had past, the sound of it ingrained in her mind from that last terrifying night. She would never be able to forget what Emilie had tried to do to her and succeeded in doing to Gabriel.

Nathalie rose to her feet, her hands sliding down her front to smooth away the invisible wrinkles. Her fingers flicker her hair back away from her eyes before tugging her jacket into place. She adjusted her armor and lifting her chin, it was time to face the beast. She stepped into the atrium. The green eyes of Emilie Agreste zeroed in on her the second she appeared. Her face was a mask of frozen civility but in just the right light, there was actually a tick going on her jaw.

Nathalie smiled pleasantly, her work smile. Her hands clasped behind her back in feigned calm. She turned toward the lawyer, inclining her head at the shorter man.

"Thank you, M. Malgré-Pont, your assistance at this time is greatly appreciated."

"Of course, if you have any questions please do let me know, as the paperwork has been completed you shall officially take over as of tomorrow. " He adjusted his grip on his attaché. "Good day, Mlle. Sancœur, Adrien, Mme. Agreste." The cacophonous curls bounced with each inclination of his head before he left.

The room seemed a frozen tableau as the three watched immobile as the lawyer left. It was the sound of Emilie’s disdainful voice that broke it.

"What is she doing here?" The question was aimed at Adrien, who had joined his mother halfway down the stairs, one arm around her to help support her weight. The frigid tone of her voice made it feel as though there were icicles forming on the ceiling. Emilie glared at her. Nathalie looked back unflinching; her face set neutrally. This may or may not have looked murderous as she had been informed by one of the _Gabriel_ models that she had a bad case of RBF. Which the girl then had to explain what RBF was while treated to its effects.

"What?" Adrien asked, looking to his mother surprised, his hand falling slightly away, which showed as she wobbled. He quickly readjusted and helped her down to flat flooring. Emilie was still quite weak, as evident through the relief that cracked through her poise, when she sank into the chair.

"Mme. Agreste, it is a pleasure to see you up and about." The pure steel of her tone matching ice for ice. Unstoppable force meet immovable object, let's see who will win. "Are you sure you should be up at this time? We wouldn't want to find you falling ill."

"Thank you for your concern," Emilie's eye twitched as she fought to maintain her own face of calm. Throwing up her society breeding, she flicked a dismissive hand as if to brush off Nathalie's 'concern.' Emilie looked away in a clear dismissal, "your services will no longer be required."

"You shall then be pleased to hear that I don't work for you," Nathalie smiled one of her ice smiles, most often used on Audrey Bourgeois. She couldn't help the eyebrow that quirked up, it often did that all on its own. Emilie's jaw clenched.

"Yes, quite pleased to know that you should have no need to enter this home in the future."

"We shall see," Nathalie adjusted her glasses, her icy cold smile still chilling her lips. Her eyes flicked to Adrien who watched the verbal tennis with the silence of a seasoned fan. "One can never know just what their job might require."

"See to it that your need to enter this house is as minuscule as possible."

Nathalie spread her hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, I am tired and should like to rest." Emilie declared with the air of a duchess straight from Austen, making it seem as though Nathalie leaving would be a favor and not exactly what she wished.

"Very well, Madame." Nathalie turned with a click of her heels.

"Wait," Adrien called after her. "Nathalie."

He caught her arm before she could slip behind her desk. Taking a bracing breath, she turned to face the boy. She looked up into the face once more Emilie than Gabriel, but time had shaded the panes of his face to show his father's influence.

"What was that?" He threw a hand over his shoulder vaguely indicating the door, his green eyes wide with shock. As he watched her, the meaning of the conversation caught up with him, he didn't wait for his first question's answer but asked another much more pressing. "Wait, do you-do you have to leave?"

"Probably best."

"What? But that's not right!" His indignity at the action, brought a small and genuine smile through the exhaustion.

"Don't worry about it, Adrien," She ruffled his hair. Scowling automatically, he reached up and tried to fix his artfully mussed fluff.

"But Nathalie" Adrien followed her.

"Really, Adrien." She sighed quietly. "It's fine. I knew --." She cleared her throat and switched tracks, " I am the CEO of _Gabriel_ now, so there will be things I need to take care of," she paused looking over her shoulder to the boy. He was there, only a few steps away, his face twisted in worry. There was a glimmer in his eye, something that screamed out at Nathalie, it tore at her that she had to walk away. She released a sigh. " Just, if you ever need anything, anything at all, you can call me."

Adrien caught her arm as she turned away. "You-you can't leave," he trailed off leaving the 'me' unspoken.

"Adrien, I might not be _here_ ," she stressed the word and waved a hand indicating the house, "but I will always be here if you need me." She patted his hand before pulling away to gather up her coat and bag.

As she walked away, her own steps echoing through the massive foyer their sound predicting her own exit, and it felt as though she would never be coming back. This was a final goodbye, called a quiet part of her heart. The morose and lost form of Adrien watched her go. She could feel his eyes on her back as the door closed behind her, clicking shut and cutting off the only tangible link to Gabriel she had. No, she knew that Gabriel wasn’t a house. There was an empty spot where he should have been, but she knew that Gabriel would never leave her.

She did regret that she was leaving Adrien in the incapable hands of Emilie. That twisted her heart painfully, but she knew that there was no way for her to change that just yet. This was not the time to fight, but that would come soon enough. She would not leave that boy alone ever again.

Turning at the gate she looked back up at the impressive house, sorrow etched the shadowed panes of the stone façade. The building itself seemed to mourn the loss of its master. She gathered her own sorrow close as she forced herself to turn, stepping briskly out into the Paris evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it what you thought would happen? What's going to happen next? Bum, bum, bum.
> 
> Also no one tell him but a friend of mine made a cameo in this chapter. He's awesome, so I hope you liked him too.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	5. Hawk Moth not forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien gets to know his mother after ten years of her being, you know, dead.

The loud chatter of Paris filtered in through the open window as Adrien lay sprawled on his couch one hand resting limply on his forehead, his fingers half curled, the slightly cool press of the metal of his ring one solitary spot of awareness. Plagg munched loudly on a piece of camembert a few feet away on the battered but righted coffee table, one of the legs was askew, and the surface was dented and scuffed though Plagg didn't seem to mind as he lolled contentedly on the top.

The house was so quiet now. There didn't seem to be more sound in the house than soft humming of the air-conditioning. There had been more noise in the house when his father was as distant as he had ever been. Perhaps that had been because Nathalie was also there, or that everything felt empty now. He could remember before when the house had been loud and boisterous. The memories of Nathalie, and his father, before he pulled away. Or even after when he opened the house, just for Adrien, gaving his friends entrance. The memories brought bitter tears to his eyes.

Sniffing angrily, he fought them back, staring up at the bland white color of his ceiling two stories above him. There was a small dent there from the first time he accidentally extended his baton, the light giving the small circle a crescent shaped shadow.

His phone chimed from where it sat next to Plagg. His hand whacked down on the table searching for his phone without looking. Once his questing fingers gripped the slim device, he held it over his face, a place from which he had dropped it may times but continued to tempt fate.

A message.

_Dude Bro: Adrien! where u at bro?_

Nino must have changed his contact name the last time he had been over, just a few days ago. It made Adrien smile weakly. He typed out a reply, nearly dropping his phone onto his face. Fate.

_Adrien: at home_

_Dude Bro: did u forget? movie night_

_Adrien: oh shit. totally did. omw_

Adrien sat up and stuffed his phone in his pocket. The standing movie night had slipped his mind in the chaos of everything. In light of the ridiculously life changing news that had been just served, a little bit of normalcy sounded like it might help. Spending time with his friends could maybe make the scooped-out emptiness inside him feel a little bit better.

"Plagg, time to go buddy." the little kwami looked up and whined about his cheese. "There's some in my pocket, it's movie night. Let's go."

Adrien bounded down the stairs holding his skateboard. He called a goodbye to Gorilla, who acknowledged him with a nod. The big man held up his phone silently.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll check in and call when I'm on my way back." Adrien rolled his eyes and went to push open the door. Even now, as an adult he still had his bodyguard, though his role had diminished over the years.

"Where do you think you're going?" a voice called out to him. Adrien turned back to see his mother standing at the top of the stairs, looking wraith-like in a wispy flowing dress of some kind. Her long hair fell free about her shoulders, which threw her face into some shadow hiding her expression.

"Uh, out?" his words came out like a question even though it was an obvious statement.

"Why do you want to do that?" his mother asked, gliding down the steps bringing her overly placid expression into view.

"I have plans with friends, Mother."

"Friends?" She cocked her head to the side. "Are you sure that they are your friends? Are you sure they don't just want to use you for your name and money?"

Adrien was taken aback, "Of course they're my friends."

"We'll see," the airy certainty of her voice sent a surge of panic through him. He could feel the anxiety start swirling as his thoughts started to spin and spiral. The tightness in his chest was growing when there was a sharp pinch to his side. Plagg brought him back. His mother watched him closely, one eyebrow tilted up. "You should cancel these plans, my dear."

"Why?" he asked carefully as he moved to prop his skateboard on his toes. He explained, "I've had this planned for ages."

"Shall I put this another way? You will not be leaving this house tonight," she reiterated and turned away a clear dismissal. He'd gotten enough of those from his father early on, but they had fallen away over the years, leaving a softer man behind. 

"Dad let me go," he didn't know why he said that. His mouth clicked closed in a snap of teeth as soon as he realized what had left it.

"Well, your father's not here, is he?" she said with the ice of earlier, half turned back, one of her hand resting on the railing. Adrien's head snapped back as if struck. He stared at her, watching as she left him there. He looked helplessly at Gorilla, who was frowning ferociously. The look he sent Adrien, was as helpless as Adrien's.

“But I’m an adult.” He groaned into the echoey room. Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose. He kicked the board back up into his hand and went back to his room. Leaning the board next to his door, he pulled his over shirt open to reveal Plagg.

"I can't believe I'm resorting to this. I haven't done this in ages." Adrien groaned in sync with Plagg before he called out, "Plagg, claws out."

There was a brief flash of green and then Chat Noir was hopping through the window and bouncing through the city rooves. He dropped down in an alley a block away from the movie theater and flashed back to Adrien. It felt really good to be Chat Noir again. Not that the city needed protecting right now, after all Hawkmoth was gone. He'd even been avoiding it to some degree knowing that his absence had led to Ladybug's downfall, and part of him blamed himself for that.

"Adrien," the joyful shout reached him seconds before an arm was slung around his shoulders. That was one thing he loved about his best friend Nino; he was always so happy. Ducking his friends arm he flicked the brim of Nino's red hat making it fly off and the two laughed. They were soon joined by the rest of the crew: Max, Kim, Luka, Alya, Rose and Juleka, Ivan and Meléne, Alix, Chloe, Sabrina, Nathaniel and Marc, Kagami, and Marinette. As a group they mobbed the ticket box leaving behind a frazzled part-time worker.

They had made the plans before graduation, they knew that they would be splitting up to different universities and programs, and they would soon enough drift apart. Adrien didn’t want that to happen, these were the people that had welcomed him so warmly when he finally got to go to a real school. These people where his closest friends. So, they made the agreement that once a month they would meet up to hang out like old times, and they would do this no matter how busy they got. No excuses.

The movie was fine, but the good-natured shoving and popcorn throwing had been better. Nino always made comments through the movies, which made Alya whack him and Marinette lean around Adrien to shush him by throwing popcorn which mostly missed and landed on Adrien. He laughed and popped the fluffy kernels into his mouth. Kim would reach over the back frequently to swipe some popcorn from Marinette, often scaring her in the process, which would only send more popcorn flying. Honestly, there was probably more popcorn on the floor or seats than in any of their stomachs.

It felt good, felt like everything that had been happening, was just a dream at least for a little while. It felt like his friends were a bit of balm on the empty wound of betrayal and loss that was hollowing out his center. So, he held tight and let the levity of his friends bolster him and push the pain away for a time. Caught among the surge of his friends as they poured out of the theater, and headed to the nearby late-night café, Adrien laughed at Nino's bad joke slinging his arm around his friend.

Time passed faster than he wanted it to, though he only realized when Marinette looked at her phone and turned to him, "Adrien, don't you have to get home soon?"

He looked down at his watch and sighed. It was late, later than his father liked him to be out. Right. His father was gone now. So, did it really matter if he went home, he'd already snuck out of the house. Then it all slammed back, the very things that he had been trying to forget. His face pinched and the truth burned in his eyes.

"Adrien?" Marinette touched his arm gently. The light touch was warm and soothing. It made the walls he had built around the truth crack. She looked at him worriedly, that worry only deepening as he looked away. The warmth coursing up his arm, made the pain only feel worse in comparison. Marinette had always been so intuitive and caring, he couldn’t face her right now. He didn’t want her smile, that more and more frequently made him melt, to break down those hard-fought walls. Though a part of him wanted to, he stood sharply pulling away.

“Adrien!” Her exclamation brought the attention of the rest of his friends. Almost as one their heads swiveled to look at him. Adrien closed his eyes at their scrutiny and forced a smile. He wondered, briefly, if he should tell them the truth. Immediately, he dismissed that idea. He couldn’t face their pity.

"I'm fine," he brushed off their worry. "I should be going, see you guys later."

With that, he beat a hasty retreat slipping into the quiet of the Paris night. If he had looked back, he would have seen Marinette standing at the door watching him go, a worried look on her face. As it was, he walked into the night his feelings a swirling maelstrom inside. The winds of anguish battering him even more ferociously, from his brief respite.

When he swung into his bedroom and collapsed face first on his bed, dropping the transformation at the same time, Adrien was feeling no better. It was the gaping emptiness that followed him into his dreams.

~

He did not sleep well. This showed on his face with the dark circles shadowing his eyes, he'd caught sight of them in the mirror and was only too happy that he didn't have any photo shoots soon. He froze gripping the edge of the sink. Adrien wondered if he would have any more photo shoots now that his father was gone.

Picking up his emotions he shoved them all back inside and locked them all in. He looked away from his own reflection and didn't look back.

"Adrien, come have breakfast with me," His mother's voice called from the top of the stairs.

"I can't, mother." Adrien slung the strap of his bag over his head. "School."

Emilie stopped, and turned to look at her son. Her face carefully frozen. "What do you mean 'school'?"

"I have to get to school, Mother" Adrien headed down the stairs away from her.

"I thought I said that you would not be leaving this house," the mild tone of her voice seemed at odds with her words. She looked down from the balcony edge at him where he had frozen mid stairs. Swiveling his head, he looked up at her confused.

"But I have to go to class. Finals are-"

"Enough," Emilie snapped, her hand slashing through the air. "I should be so surprised that your father has become so lax, well no matter we shall remedy this shortly." She descended the stairs, regally, to take hold of his elbow. She led him down the stairs and over to the massive dining room. "You are going to stay here with me. We are going to eat a lovely breakfast and spend the day catching up. After all, I've been gone for ten years."

She towed him into the room and pulled his bag away dropping it in one of the empty chairs. The massive table was filled with platters of food. Adrien had never once seen that much food on that table at one time. There was every manner of breakfast fixing possible, cereals to breads, and fresh fruits. She released him to pick up a piece of apple and take a dainty bite, her eyes surveying the bounty before her. Gathering pain au chocolate and some strawberries on a plate she seated herself on the chair the Adrien normally used.

"Look, Mother, I'm very happy that you are back, and I'd love to spend time with you, but finals are only weeks away and -" Adrien picked up his bag, gathering the strap in his hand.

"No." She didn't even bother to look at him.

"We can talk after I get back."

"Adrien, I thought I told you to stay here with me." She voice had taken on a hard edge. "I don't know why you are insisting on this. I've just come home, don't you want to stay with me?" and just like that he felt guilty for even wanting to go to school, felt guilty that he had even persisted. She looked away, "Now, _sit_. Eat. Then we will have a marvelous day together. "

Adrien watched his mother settle calmly back into her chair and bite into a berry. It felt as if his heart and his stomach were somewhere in his throat. He swallowed; eyes wide as his mother seemed to go completely back to normal. His hands shook as he placed his bag back on the chair and forced himself to sit down at the table next to her. She smiled at him, this time warm and sweet, the smile he could remember not that terrifying grin. She waved toward the enormous waste of food, watching him carefully until he picked up a croissant.

Time ticked by and now he was late. His phone started dinging.

"What was that?" his mother asked.

"Nothing, just my phone." Adrien put a hand into his pocket to silence the mobile.

With her plate nibbled Emilie rose and swept from the room. Adrien leaned back, his head thumping against the back of the chair.

"What the hell." Adrien dug out his phone as he muttered to Plagg. He swiped open the screen to see messages from all of his friends and multiple from Nino.

"What just happened here?" Plagg flew out from under Adrien's jack.

"I have no idea, buddy. She was never like that before."

"What are you going to do?" Plagg floated over the food in search of cheese.

"I don't know," Adrien rubbed his palm over his face and sagged in the seat. He stuffed his hands into his armpits chewing on his lip. His father had been bad early on after his mother had vanished, overly protective and distant, but over the years he had changed. It seemed like he realized that he couldn't keep acting that way. Adrien was going to grow up regardless of the way that his father insisted that he wouldn’t.

He really had gotten better, though he certainly acted like an asshole frequently, but that all made sense in the context that he was Hawkmoth all along. Hawkmoth thrived on negative emotions and creating negative emotions would make it easier for him to pray on them. Even with all of that, his father had become more open and spent more time with Adrien. Actually showing Adrien that he cared and not just in life threatening situations. After all the change, this seemed worse than it had before.

He was thrilled to have his mother back, that was all he had wanted since the moment she had disappeared, but it wasn't what he had be imagining in all his dreams. Perhaps, if he just played a long for a bit his mother would get used to the way things are now. She had been gone for ten years, she'd missed a large chunk of his life, and she didn't even know him anymore. He was different now, twenty-two and at University, not the baby-faced little kid he had been.

Adrien exploded out in a frustrated flail. “Get your cheese, buddy.” Adrien grabbed his with an angry hand.

“I can’t choose!’ wailed the little kwami.

“I cannot miss this class. We’re starting the last unit today and there is no way I’m missing it.” He knew that there was a chance his mother was going to notice even though she had walked away, leaving him there after she had said that she wanted to talk with him. He had to make his own choices, and finishing his degree was his choice. And so, Adrien left.

His mother didn’t even notice.

“There you are Adrien,” Emilie said breezily, when he walked through the front door. She was standing in the center of the atrium, surrounded by a gaggle people. One officious woman was speaking to Emilie, while the others held out fabric samples or wall tile options. “Come look at these. Do you like the purple or the blue better?”

One of the women held out the options. The colors reminded Adrien viscerally of Hawkmoth and Mayura. It was like a punch in the gut.

“Neither” he said, when he managed to breathe again.

“Yes, that blue is much better.” She railroaded across what he had said with her own opinion. She turned back to the designer who was showing more samples to pair with her choice. She did look back as he walked away to his room.

That was basically how it went, every conversation felt like going in circles. She would never listen to what he said and persisted until he did as she wished. Which was often spending time with her, going shopping with her, etcetera. Only the conversations where he tried to persuade her to let him finish out school, or even see his friends, were the conversations where he even tried as futile as it was.

"I do so wish you had remained homeschool, but we can't do anything about the past. You could go back to being homeschooled."

"Finals and graduation are so close it wouldn't be worth it. Plus, Nathalie was my tutor and she's head of _Gabriel_ now. She wouldn't be able to anyway." Not to mention that he was in university now, which can’t be homeschooled, but she just didn’t seem to retain that information. Adrien glanced at his mother and saw that she had frozen, teacup halfway to her mouth just floating there as she stared at him her gaze hard.

"What?" She asked, enunciating painfully clearly.

"Nathalie is head of _Gabriel_?"

"Of all the foolhardy rash impetuous things following your pecker and putting your whore in control of your company is the most asinine..." She muttered derisively under her breath, but Adrien caught most of it. He bit his tongue hard and forced himself not to say anything rash as his mother maligned his father’s memory and Nathalie reputation. He hated how she talked of Nathalie and his father. 

Adrien grit his teeth. "See, Mother, it wouldn't work at all."

"We can't let a silly thing like that stop us. We'll just find you a new teacher."

"Mother," he couldn’t help the exasperation that colored his tone. She sighed and sipped at her tea.

"No, homeschooled would be much better. You should just stay home with me." She said, ignoring everything he said.

No matter what he said, no matter how persuasive his argument, she would just brush it off. She swanned about the house, taking it over in merely a night. She’d redecorated a soon as possible, turning the monochromatic house into deep jewel tones. It was oh so de la mode. It was almost like she was erasing Gabriel from the house.

Friday night. Adrien lay on his bed catawampus, his limbs half dangling off. Plagg floated above him. The end of the week brought no joy. It seemed that things only seemed to get worse. He missed his friends. He missed his father. He missed Nathalie. Never had he thought that having his mother back could feel so empty. It was odd, she vacillated between not even noticing Adrien, to hovering a close as possible. It was like his mother had a sixth sense and would pop her head into his room whenever he tried to talk to one of his friends, making contact sporadic. His friends were starting to worry. Particularly as Nino had been turned away at the door several times.

"They're not your real friends, baby. They just want to use you." she had patted his cheek condescendingly.

He missed Nathalie; her silent presence had never felt more absent. She had always been there. As long as he could remember. Nathalie had been a part of his life. Now, with her gone and his mother swanning about the house, it felt like a suffocating cage slowly encasing him. Not even with his father at his worst did the house feel quite like this.

It didn't feel right. Everything with his mother felt wrong. This wasn't the woman he remembered. This was not the woman who used to take him on surprise picnics, just the two of them. This was not the woman who had sat on the roof with him, pointing out the sights of Pairs lit by spotlight in the night or telling stories of the moon. He needed answers, there was something missing, something that his father had never told him.

He had questions, questions that needed answers. Plus, he just missed her. He had wanted to call her, so many times. He picked up the phone and stared at it never quite making it to the green button. He always fell short, not wanting to bother her. She must have been very busy taking over _Gabriel_.

Adrien shoved off the bed and locked both his doors. Moving to stand next to the ginormous windows that took up his entire wall, which was as far from the doors as possible, he keyed in her number from memory, his phone supplying the rest halfway through.

"Adrien?" her voice was worried as it crackled through the little speaker tinnily, and it soothed something inside of him that he did know needed soothing. If only his father were still here. Then maybe he wouldn’t feel so empty.

"Nathalie," He sighed, his forehead dropping with a hollow thunk to the glass of the window. "I need you - I need to talk to you," there was a sound from her end that he didn't quite catch, "and this is not the kind of thing that we can talk about on the phone. Please."  


"Of course," Nathalie's voice was so certain and reassuring. He closed his eyes at the sound. There was a moment of silence, a comfortable sort of silence. There was a jingle and rustling sound. Was she rushing out the door, he checked the time, at ten minutes to midnight?

"Nathalie, it's late. You don't have to come right now. It's not that important." He laughed a little.

"Oh, yes," her voice dropped, there was a jingle as metal hit a metal.

"Thank you, though."

"I told you I would always be there for you."

"I know, Nathalie, you always have been." He cleared his throat. "She sleeps late, so it you get here early enough, which shouldn’t be a problem since eleven is early, Mother shouldn't even know."

"Okay, Adrien. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Nathalie? I -" he wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure quite what because somewhere along the line ‘Mom,’ the person who loves you and takes care of you, became synonymous with Nathalie in his mind. It took until she was forcibly removed from his life for him to realize how much he had come to see Nathalie as family, as mom. He missed her, and he loved her, she was Nathalie. She was the one that was there, all the time when his mother was not, when his father was not.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be like Emilie.


	6. Hawk Moth's truth revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien finally gets the story, it's a lot to take in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enormous thanks to my beta!

Nathalie stood before the large iron scroll worked gates to the Agreste house, her heart thudding hard in her chest. The sight of the house was enough to remind her. It seemed that everything was a reminder, constantly shoving the fact that he was gone in her face. She woke to the sound of her alarm as usual, the thought that she'd better get her coffee before dealing with Gabriel today had her halfway out of bed before she remembered. She froze on the edge of the bed staring out at nothing, and she cried. Nathalie could have sworn that she had cried herself out, but each time more tears found their way down her cheeks.

It was the rare moments that caught her. She barely had time to think what with the frantic pace of the office, constantly putting out fires and fixing problems and what not. It was remarkably similar to what she had done before covering for Gabriel, which made it was easy to do. Easy to lose herself in the work. She welcomed the chaos of it, pushing the feelings away to keep her numb. In the momentary lulls of a day, she thought of Adrien, hoping that he was fine. She wanted to reach out, she’d get as far as the phone in her hand, but then her office phone would ring, or someone would knock on the door drawing her away again.

When the running finally did stop, and she fell, exhausted, onto her couch. The pain rushed back in like a wave sweeping everything else away leaving only the suffocating feeling of drowning. She knew that she was stronger than this, but she couldn’t find her strength. The bottle of wine perched on her coffee table taunted her. The corkscrew lay next to it. She got closer every day. It would be easy to reach out and just drink. No, she pushed herself never to feel. She failed, over and over, but she still tried.

That really was the hardest part, remembering. It still hit just as hard as the moment it had happened. Even as she became the head of _Gabriel_ , feeling like this could all be some surreal dream and that he wasn't really gone. Every day was different, more different than it had ever been, and yet the same. It made the world feel warped and broken. It hurt constantly, brimming under the unfeeling veneer she tried to keep in place. Knowing that she would never see him again. The knowledge and acceptance that he was truly gone. She felt it even more as she looked up at the cold stone façade of the Agreste house, realizing that it had never really felt cold before.

Adrien had called her. He had called the night before, something in his voice caused her own to freeze in her throat. She had promised to see him, she had already been halfway to the door keys in her hand when he told her to come the next day. It was the next day and here she stood, not exactly ready to push the button. She knew that she would have to eventually, if only to get Gabriel's documents. If only to take Adrien away. Sure, he was an adult, but he had always been such a kind boy putting what others wanted above his own wishes.

Adrien must have been waiting for her because the gates swung open before she could muster the courage to push it. Swiftly she stepped into the courtyard as the doors clanged closed behind her.

She had barely made it through the front door of the house when Adrien's arms were around her in a tight hug. Shocked she looked at the blond hair filling her vision before returning the hug. Wrapping her own arms around him in the way her mother had always done for her. It soothed something. The growling voice in the back of her mind calmed.

Finally, Adrien pulled away looking faintly embarrassed. Nathalie smiled slightly and followed him into the kitchen. There was a fresh pot of coffee waiting for them with two cups set aside.

Nathalie shooed the boy to a stool at the bar as she poured the two cups full. She placed one of the cups in front of Adrien with a bowl of sugar. Hers she added a splash of cream to before slipping onto a stool across the island. They sat in silence for a moment, Adrien idly stirring his coffee mostly for the action and not because the sugar needed more help to dissolve.

"So," Adrien looked up from the swirl of his coffee whirlpool.

"So, " Nathalie watched him levelly. Her hands wrapped around the cup as the heat of the coffee seeped through. It was almost too hot, and she pulled her hands back to take a sip.

"I had all these questions that I wanted to ask, but now I can't remember which I wanted to ask first." Adrien's fingers played with the mug handle. "Mother, she's been acting weird. Was she like this before and I never knew?"

Nathalie sighed focusing on her cup, "Yes."

Adrien's gaze landed on her sharply questioning.

"To put it simply yes, she was acting similarly but it was toward the end. Last six months or so before she disappeared. We tried to shield you from it. Your father and I, but, well, there were extenuating circumstances."

"What kind of extenuating circumstances?"

"I suppose it's the whole story then," Nathalie said wryly. She took a bracing sip of coffee before continuing, "You never knew this, but your parents had what you might call an arranged marriage. It was more of a business deal than anything, and certainly not a love match. Even though it was only a deal it was still a marriage, which your father took seriously and your mother," she licked her lips nervously, "not as such."

"Mother had an affair?"

Nathalie scrutinized the boy, pausing to gauge her answer before she said, "Several."

His head dropped to stare at his half empty coffee. "So, what does this have to do with -?" He waved his hand vaguely in the space between them, at a loss for the words.

"Your mother believed that, that your father and I were having an affair."

"You weren't?" Adrien sounded surprised.

"Of course not," Nathalie's chin pulled back and she frowned at him, her voice coming out sharper than she intended.

"Nathalie, I know you love my dad."

"Yes, I do. God help me." She wrapped her hands tightly around her mug, focusing on the action as she shifted on her seat. "But we never - we never did anything about it. He is-was my boss." She caught herself, forcing herself to use the past tense. She laughed then, sardonically; her voice was thick with emotion. "Never thought I'd be telling you this.

"Well anyway, your mother, she wouldn't be persuaded. She would have fired me if she could. No, instead she did everything thing else that she could possibly do to 'separate' us. That was when I became your tutor, she wanted to be sure that I was not anywhere near your father. These times would be interspersed with her stealing time with you often hidden away somewhere. The two of you would disappear. It drove your father crazy with worry, and it only seemed to devolve from there. Eventually, she wouldn't trust me to be around you. She thought that I would, let's see if I remember correctly, 'poison you against her.' She had started to lose grip with reality. Then she went to Tibet."

Adrien listened intently; his coffee sat cooling in his hands as he watched Nathalie tell the story of his forgotten youth.

"Tibet was when everything changed. When she was there, she found something. I'm sure you can guess," Adrien nodded so minutely it was almost invisible. Nathalie placed the peacock tail brooch on the counter followed by the wings of the butterfly. Adrien stared at the innocuous little pins, sitting there on the counter. She pulled her fingers back slowly, "These. Somehow, she found them and started using them. But, if you remember, the peacock was broken," she reached out one finger to trace the top edge of the pin. "It made her worse. Now, she never showed it to you, she would throw up this mask any time you were around acting like a ‘mother’, but it was terrifying. The swings and dips she would take, running off with you alone and not telling anyone to the fights with your father.

"God, he'd hate me for telling you this. He wanted to protect you and the memories that you had of your mother. He would never taint them." Nathalie stopped; one hand pressed to her mouth. "He wanted to protect you from the truth."

"She's looking for something, in the house. I can hear her in the middle of the night tearing things apart as she searches." Adrien still looked at the two miraculous innocently laying on the countertop. "These, right?"

"Probably, or the black cat and ladybug ones."

"Why would she want -?" Adrien glanced at the silver ring on his finger.

"Your father didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"You stupid bastard." Nathalie muttered under her breath, but Adrien heard her anyway. "I'm not sure that I should be the one to tell that story. "

"Please Nathalie?"

"I," she coughed lightly, "no, if your father didn't tell you. No, I'm sorry Adrien. I'll tell you whatever else you want to know, but not that. It still haunts me." Nathalie stood turning her back to the boy, her shoulders sat high and tight, as she added more coffee to her cup. When she turned back to the boy her mouth was a thin line. Nathalie settled back on her stool. Using one hand she pushed the two miraculous over toward Adrien. "I meant to give these to you earlier. Hawkmoth is done so they should go back to the guardian. They should never fall into ill-intentioned hands again."

"She won't let me leave the house, Nathalie." Adrien's shoulders slumped, making the boy seem younger than his years, back to the little boy he had been before his mother disappeared.

"I know they will be safe in your hands, your father did too." Nathalie took one of his hands and placed the miraculous in his palm before curling his fingers around them. She pulled back her hand to curl it around her mug again.

"I miss him," Adrien eyes glimmered from tears that pooled there, just this side of not falling. His hand clutched tightly at the pins in his grip.

"I do too," Nathalie murmured.

They sat in silence, the sad sort of silence of people who have felt the same loss. It was also comforting in a way because there is someone else that feels the same. It helped make the feelings lighter almost, to share them. 

The coffee pot had turned off, the barest bit of coffee burning from sitting on the heat for too long, their cups were empty and long since pushed to the side. They had continued talking, sharing stories of Gabriel to remember the good times. They laughed and they cried, they remembered the good times and the silly ones. The times before Hawkmoth. 

"Adrien?" the voice was shrill and strident as it cut through the house. "Adrien?"

"Shit," Adrien shot of his stool and hit the swinging door at a run. Nathalie turned watching him go, wanting to run after him and take him away from the woman who thought to keep him locked away in this house, but she stayed knowing that her presence would only make Emilie more volatile.

Nathalie waited until the sound of them talking faded away towards the dining room before she made her way towards the front door, hoping to leave before Emilie noticed she was ever there so that Adrien didn't have to deal with that again. Nathalie's fingers had just touched the smooth wood of the front door when the enraged squawk came from the dining room behind her.

"What is she doing here?" Emilie stood in the open doorway, her hands flat on the frame, Adrien caught behind her still on the other side of the door.

"She's here because I asked her to be, mother." Adrien reached out to place his hand on Emilie's shoulder, but she stalked forward toward Nathalie.

"You have no right to this house," Emilie drew up just short of reaching Nathalie, glaring up at her.

"Actually, as head of _Gabriel_ I do have the right," Nathalie shifted her weight onto one leg as her arms crossed. She looked down her nose at the blonde. "Since this house is listed among the assets of the company, I have every right to be here."

"So, you are going to take it too?" Emilie's teeth bared as she hissed. "Take it, like everything else?"

"I never took anything from you. You did it to yourself."

Emilie moved quick as a whip her hand lashing out at Nathalie. Crack. The sound of the slap echoed in the cavernous foyer. Nathalie's head remained turned to the side, the slow flush of color rising on her pale cheek in the shape of fingers.

"Nathalie!" Adrien reached out, but she shook her head a short little shake. She turned back slowly, eyes like ice. She reached up to readjust her glasses.

"This house _is_ listed as part of _Gabriel_ , which means that I have the power as the CEO of _Gabriel_ to remove you from this residence. I have not. You want me to take things from you? Push me." Nathalie stepped forward, using the added height of her heels to look even further down at the blonde, her voice lowering for just Emilie to hear, which was defeated by the room as echoey as it was. "I will not let you ruin anything else. Not _Gabriel_ brand and not your son. I won't let you destroy Adrien like you destroyed his father."

Emilie glared at her, that satisfying tick going on her jaw.

"You have no power now." Nathalie cast one last parting shot at the smaller woman. Looking to Adrien, she tried to reassure him with a look, but he seemed only more worried. Biting the inside of her cheek, she walked away. This battle was over, but there would be more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not the slap you were expecting I bet.


	7. Hawk Moth's whole truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacked in and downloaded i.e. Adrien has a horrible day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you, thank you, thank you to my beta!

Nathalie's words jostled memories loose that Adrien didn't recall having. As he thought about it chasing the memories, he could remember a moment, one specific time when his mother's touch went from warm to possessive.

It was a day like any other, as far as Adrien could remember. Nathalie and he had just finished his history lesson. She had to go help his father for the next hour or so, which left him in front of the piano which he was supposed to be practicing. His mother had swept in her smile wide and bright. At the time, Adrien had just been happy to see her. Now, he could remember that the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. She pulled him close, her fingers digging in more than normal.

It hadn't seemed odd at the time, but she hadn't let go of him until they had come back to the house. One of her hands had lingered over him the entire time, clutching his shoulder, touching his hair, or holding his hand. It had felt so nice, to see his mother, after she had been away filming, that it hadn't seemed odd at all. He just reveled in the time with his mother.

He knew now. That was when she changed. It seemed so subtle but so obvious. He was so young at the time, he never noticed, he was just so happy to have time with him mom, not knowing that soon she would be gone.

Still there was something missing. Things were starting to fall into place, but he still didn't have the whole story.

His father wanted to protect him from the truth, Nathalie said, and she had too. She stopped short of the full story. Adrien huffed and covered his face with his hands. Nathalie had said something to his mother _'I won't let you ruin him like you ruined his father.'_ What did that mean?

That was part of the story that neither would tell. Nathalie wouldn't tell him the full truth. She had told him just enough, enough for the story to stop making sense. Adrien had pulled out the letter from his father and read it again. He'd read it several times, realizing now that there were gaps in the story. He could see the moment his father stopped from telling him, but he needed the full truth. The only question was, where he could get that truth. 

Plagg sat his little butt on Adrien's forehead eating a disgusting smelling piece of cheese.

"Plagg, that's disgusting," Adrien pinched nose and tried to look up at the kwami but couldn't see him.

"But delicious," Plagg crooned and leaned over Adrien's eyes to look at the boy. "You know who could help?"

"Who?" Adrien's eyes crossed as he looked up at the very close face of the kwami and had to blink to refocus.

"Nooroo and Duusu."

"Who?" this time it was more of a question.

"The kwamis of the butterfly and peacock." Plagg said and flew off from his forehead perch. Adrien sat up stuffing a hand in his pocket to pull out the two miraculous Nathalie had returned to him earlier. They sat cold and quiet in his palm.

"I need the truth, " Adrien murmured to himself. They continued to sit silently in his palm. His brows furrowed and he frowned at his kwami. "What do I do? "

Plagg sighed, highly aggrieved. He flew over and tapped the top of each pin. Two little balls of light flew up and burst to reveal a pale purple kwami with a little swirl on his head and delicate wings, and a chirpy little blue kwami with a peacock tail. When the two saw Plagg there was a bit of screeching and hugging and grumbling on Plagg's part. He's not the most affectionate.

"Hello there," Adrien waved his fingers a little drawing their attention. Three sets of big kwami eyes looked up at him.

"Is this your master?" the little purple one flew up closer to his face, looking at the boy. He gasped, "this is master's son!"

"Oh, gosh, please don't use 'master'." Adrien quickly pleaded. Plagg looked a bit affronted. "You must be?"

"I am Nooroo, young master." The kwami bowed. Adrien's eyes rolled briefly skyward at the continued use of the title.

"And I'm Duusu," trilled the blue kwami.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you both."

"Is Miss Nathalie here?" Duusu moved right before his nose nearing the closeness that Plagg had achieved earlier, his eyes almost crossed to keep the kwami in focus. Adrien shook his head and the kwami drooped.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you could tell me something?" Adrien leaned forward, looking at each of the kwamis in turn.

"If we are able," Nooroo replied as Duusu nodded his little head emphatically up and down. He seemed a bit hyper.

"I would like you to tell me of my mother, Emilie Agreste."

"Miss Emilie?" Duusu asked, falling still for a moment. "I remember Miss Emilie. I didn't like what she did."

"She was the one who found us, we did not know that we had been lost until she found us." Nooroo settled on the pillow on the seat next to Adrien. Duusu flew in spirals and loops above their heads. "Miss Emilie, used both of us. She liked Duusu's powers better, but she let me be free. We were cut off from the others, so it was nice. She even brought us back with her, to Paris.

"Duusu's pin was broken, but we didn't know until Miss Emilie started getting sick. I warned her against continuing to use it." Nooroo looked up at the little peafowl. "Duusu did not know what his pin was doing, it was part of the damage to the miraculous, we found. "

"So, using a broken miraculous is what lead to my mother's illness? Then why is she still -?" He leaned closer, his hand making a little wiggle movement. Adrien had twisted to face Nooroo, one leg bent with his foot caught behind the other knee, entranced by the little kwami's story. 

"That was not caused by her using Duusu. Perhaps, it had been exacerbated through her continued use." Nooroo responded.

"Okay," Adrien's head dropped his shoulder raising up. "How did she disappear?"

"When Miss Emilie left, I was so sad. Mister Gabriel put me away and it was lonely." Duusu cried drooping down next to Nooroo and hugged the other kwami. He perked back up, "but then Miss Nathalie came, and she was so kind to me."

"One day, Miss Emilie used both of us at the same time. It was too much for her, and she collapsed." Nooroo settled back on his pillow after Duusu flew away again.

"Why would she do that?"

"She created a sentimonster with akuma powers. I felt her intentions. She was trying to send someone away but instead Master stopped her. Master was cursed by the sentimonster. I cannot recall the words, but it was because of that, that Master became Hawkmoth. "

"What?" it was a tiny sound pulled unknowingly free in his shock. He blinked at the little kwami. "Cursed?"

"'for lack of a better term' is what Miss Nathalie would always say."

"He wasn't Hawkmoth because he wanted to be?"

"No, young master." Nooroo reached out a little hand to place it on Adrien's clenched fist where it rested on his knee.

Adrien leaned back against the arm of the couch. One hand pushed through his hair as he stared out at nothing. His father was Hawkmoth, but never wanted to be. He was forced to do it because of his mother.

"How could they never have told me?" Adrien ground the heels of his hands against his eyes. All this time, Hawkmoth only did what he had to get the wish, in order to stop the curse and bring back the woman who had cursed him. Now, he was gone. Phrases from his letter rose in Adrien's mind. _I needed the wish to free us_ and _for you to be safe and happy_. The tears burned in his eyes.

Gabriel Agreste knew that to make the wish it would mean giving up his life, but he also knew that if he made the wish, he would no longer have to be Hawkmoth. _I did all of this for you_.


	8. Hawk Moth missed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien has some questions and doesn't like his answers. Really, he's not dealing with this well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my beta <3

"Take it back." Adrien threw open the doors to his father's office hard enough that they shuddered from the hit rebounding back towards him. Nathalie was standing behind the desk. Her hands were full of papers while her eyes were red rimmed behind her glasses. She looked up at his entrance. "Take the wish back."

"What?" Nathalie's hands fell down, the papers still in her grip bending as they hit the top of the desk.

"Take the wish back and bring back my father." Adrien crossed the room with angry, ground eating strides. He slapped his hands on the other side of the desk punctuating his demand. His jaw was set, and his gaze determined.

"I'm sorry, Adrien. There's nothing we can do." She pushed the papers together and dropped the stack. "You can't just take a wish back. No matter how much we might want to."

Adrien shoved off the desk with an irate huff and paced across the room. Stopping at the couch set before the fireplace, he dropped a hand on the back of the couch. His head bowed. Nathalie took as step almost following him when he swung back around freezing her motion.

"Why the _hell_ not?"

"It just doesn't work that way. The wish has been made; the price has been payed. You can't take that back." She reached out as though she could reach him all the way across the room but let her hand fall back. Her fingers curled tight.

"I know what happened Nathalie. He should never have had to do any of it." Adrien sat on the back of the couch, his weight suddenly dropping under him. She gaped at him, in the way that Nathalie would ever gape, which was very subtly.

"How?" Her question was weak with her shock.

"Nooroo and Duusu, remarkably chatty, they told me what you and my father wouldn't. That my mother did this, did this to everyone. She took him away all those years ago and I want him back."

"He is gone, Adrien. We have to accept that." Nathalie's hands clenched at her sides. Her eyes closed briefly.

"How could you give up on him, you love him!" Adrien stood, whirling to face her.

"He did it without me!" Nathalie shouted, "He never told me that this would happen, and then he was gone right before my eyes." She turned away from Adrien so he couldn't see her crying. Her hands pressed to her mouth, her breath coming in short little hiccups. Her breaths slowed, one hand rubbing away the tears at her eyes. Throwing her head back she breathed deeply through her nose. "Trust me, Adrien, if I could take it back, I would have, immediately."

When she turned back her face was calm, only the slight shine of tears she missed on her cheeks was evidence of her showing emotions. A cracked veneer hiding the hurt and broken woman underneath. Adrien's jaw clenched, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, as he fought to keep his own emotions in check. He looked away from Nathalie, eyes falling on the foot of the stairs that led up to the third floor.

"I just want him back, " he spoke softly. "I want the real Gabriel Agreste back. He says he did this for me because he had no other choice. I want the man that should have been my father, not the farce that is my mother." His hands rubbed harshly over his face. He gestured over his shoulder to the mantle of pictures, "To see these and know that I never even got to know my real father."

"Adrien," Nathalie stood before him, her hands tucked into the pockets of her slacks, he hadn't noticed her approach lost in his torment. "Your father has never been good at emotions, but he always loved you. He only ever wanted what was best for you that is why he got rid of Hawkmoth and returned the ring. Even though he made mistakes, he tried to set it right. We have to let him."

"But did he make it right? Or did he just make it worse?"

Nathalie didn't answer, she looked like she wanted to, but it didn't come.

"He took himself away from the people that loved him and left behind an unhinged woman who has torn this house apart looking for the miraculous. She wants power and doesn't care how she gets it and he left us here with that! How is that right?" Adrien watched her through swimming eyes. She flinched as his question hit home. Adrien sighed resigned. "I loved my mother, but then I lost her. I will always love her, but that woman is not my mother. No matter how much I want it to be, she is not my mother. She hasn't been my mother for quite some time."

Nathalie reached out but he pulled back not wanting to be soothed. Adrien stepped away further moving toward the door. If she couldn't help him, then he would find someone else who would. He paused in the doorway looking back, at Nathalie, still standing there arm outstretched. There was new pain on her face, and he'd put it there, but he was not going to let the pain stay, he was going to get rid of all the pain. He was going to fix his family.

"When I think of my family," He stopped, her wavering eyes watched him. "My mom isn't her. Nathalie." He still couldn't get the words out, perhaps more like his father than he thought, he turned away before he could see the new tears spill over her cheeks. He closed his eyes, feeling the wetness of his own tears spread out along his lashes.

"Plagg, claws out." There was a flash of green light and Chat Noir bounded out of the window.

Several rooftops later, he finally stopped. Dropping lightly on the roof he retracted his staff. Slipping down to dangle his legs off the side of the roof, he flicked to his phone action on the staff. He paused. He had not seen Ladybug since he lost the miraculous to Hawkmoth, his father. He had left her alone, abandoned to lose under the overwhelming might of Hawkmoth and Mayura. It was his fault that she lost. That they had lost.

Was Ladybug even back, he wondered. The ring had been returned to him, did that mean that her earrings had also been returned. He should have asked. His fingertip wavered over her icon. He sat there hesitating so long that his staff started ringing. Ladybug blinked up at him. Squeezing his eyes shut tight, he answered.

"Chat?" Her worried and relieved voice was so nice to hear. "Chat, are you there?"

"Yeah, bugaboo."

"Ugh, really? Bringing that one back?" He could hear the eye roll audibly; it brought a weary laugh to his lips.

"Thought it might be nice, after everything." He glanced kicking his legs in the open space off the edge of the roof. Looking back out at the spray of the city before him falling into his own guilt, he nearly missed what she said next.

"We should talk."

"Yes, we should. I - There are things - yeah, we need to talk." He floundered not knowing how to say what he needed to. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed when Ladybug dropped onto the roof next to him. She slipped down next to him one leg dropping over the side like his. She leaned over bumping their shoulders together. His head jerked up at the touch. The first thing he saw was her smile. It was so nice to see her, his answering smile was warm and happy, but it quickly fell away.

"I'm sorry." The words caught in his throat. He wished he could say more, could do more than just apologize. There was so much he wanted to say, to explain, to pray that she wouldn’t hate him for failing. It was the only thing he could say, though.

"For what?" Ladybug asked, leaning forward to catch his eye. He matched her sincere gaze and felt some of the tension leave his body. How could she look at him without disappointment?

"Letting Hawkmoth win."

"That wasn't your fault." she popped him lightly in the shoulder.

"It was though," Adrien shoved his hand between his knees, his body curling down. This was the truth of it. He had lost his miraculous right when Ladybug had need him most, and it felt even worse now, knowing that it was his own father that had done it. “He got my miraculous.”

“Chat, I don’t blame you.”

“Why not?” He asked bitterly, “After all, Hawkmoth was my father."

"What?" Ladybug shrieked and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth. Chat Noir's shoulders hunched. He'd expected her reaction to be much worse. He wanted to hate the man like she did, part of him really did, for all the pain that he had put the citizens of Paris through, but there was another part of him that knew there was more to the story. He wanted to hate him, but the truth was he missed him. Flat out, he missed his father.

"Yeah," it was drawn out like it had more than one syllable. "My father was Hawkmoth, but he didn't want to be."

"What?" Ladybug just kind of gaped at him. “He didn’t want to terrorize Paris. So, then why was he doing just that?”

"No," he held a hand out, "Just listen, please?"

In the face of his beseeching countenance, she fell silent.

"He was cursed. For lack of a better term," He laughed mirthlessly as he repeated Nooroo's words. He told her the story, the whole story as he knew it. He was careful to leave out any information that could give away either of their identities. "See, someone else had the miraculous first, before him. That person used both powers to place a compulsion on him. He was driven by the powers of the miraculous to complete a command."

Ladybug watched him, her face a carefully cultivated neutral, as she was clearly trying to process everything he had just dumped on her. Finally, she asked, “What was the command?"

"Get the Ladybug and cat miraculous and make a wish." He looked down at his black clad knees. “Kind of obvious when you think about it.”

"But we are all still here?" Ladybug chewed on her thumbnail.

Chat Noir shoved his hair back with rough hands. He turned to see Ladybug lost in thought. Dropping a hand on her shoulder, her bluebell eyes focused on him, and he said, "It was a surprisingly small wish."

"Chat?"

"The wish was to bring back the person that cursed him. Now, he's dead instead. The whole world didn’t end, only mine.” The words fell out before he could stop them. It was the truth. Nothing felt right anymore. Yes, his father had been Hawkmoth, but Gabriel fucking Agreste was still his father. He hid behind his hands as the tears fell free.

Ladybug threw her arms around her partner and friend as he cried. He leaned into her hold and let the tears go. He'd spent so much time holding them in and fighting them off, that he really just couldn't fight them anymore. He cried into his hands until the tears stopped. Ladybug holding him the whole time.

"I want to bring him back." He admitted, his voice small but determined. Wiping at his damp cheeks with the back of his hand, he turned his eerie green eyes on Ladybug.

"What? Chat, why would we do that?" Ladybug pulled back. One of her hands gripping his shoulder tightly. Tighter than she probably meant but it was fine, the pressure helped focus him. This was a big ask, he knew that.

"It wasn't his fault and it's our job to fix it. Aren't we the superheroes? He shouldn't have to give his life like that."

"How would we even do that?" She let go as though she just realized she was still holding him. Her arms crossed over her chest.

"Could we ask the guardian?"

"I don't know, Chat. Is this even a good idea? To bring back Hawkmoth?"

"Please," he caught her hands, and held them firmly. She bit her lip, caught in his impassioned stare. "It wouldn't be Hawkmoth; it would be my father, the man he should have been not the cursed one. Please."

Ladybug closed her eyes, her face twisting in pity.

"Please, believe me," He released her hands so quickly she had to jerk them back so they didn’t hit his leg. He reached into his pocket to pull out the miraculous of the butterfly and peacock. "He had these returned!"

The pins clinked in her palm as they knocked together. She stared down at them her mouth open in shock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think Ladybug does?
> 
> Thanks for reading


	9. Hawk Moth and a query

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This will be interesting. Also, Max just really like research.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Forever love to my beta!

"Now, don't get excited," Ladybug said as she dropped onto the roof next to him. Her hands clutched at a tablet, holding it tight to her chest. Her face seemed set, like she had made up her mind, but excited in the way she had just told him not to be. Adrien couldn't help the bubble of hope that rose in his chest at her unspoken 'but' knowing that she had something, especially given the look on her face. "There might be something in the book of the miraculous. In this part here, it's only partially translated but this part is where joint power of the miraculous and the wish is explained. If we could just read this -"

"How?" He cut her off, his excitement nearly overwhelming him. He was sparks and energy as he pulled to his staff, searching through something on the baton's screen. Making a small noise of triumph he turned his luminous bright eyes back to her. "No, I know. I have a friend who is very good with computers, he could make a translation algorithm using previously translated data."

"If we had a better picture, this picture is too blurry. That's why it was only partially translated." She shook her head sadly.

"If I get the book, would that work?" his hands curled around hers in his enthusiasm. She stared at their hands, her throat working cheeks slowly flushing red. He dropped her hands looking slightly ashamed. She cleared her throat and looked at him square in the eyes.

"Could you get the book?"

"Yes," Adrien thought of the last place he remembered the book being, in the safe behind the painting of Emilie in his father's Atelier. His mouth twisted to the side in thought. If Plagg helped him it would be a piece of cake, after all the room was in the house so it wouldn't even involve sneaking out which made it marginally less likely his mother would notice.

"Then, maybe," she spun the tablet back towards herself, looking down at it. "if we know more, we can figure out what to do."

"Thank you," He threw his arms around Ladybug, the tears prickling at his eyes were more hopeful than they had been. He tossed her a jaunty grin as he catapulted himself off the roof and into the night. 

There was hope. 

There was hope bubbling in his heart. Maybe they could really fix this. This situation was just a mess, and nothing felt right anymore. He had always thought that his father was the worst man in his life, second only to Hawkmoth, only to find out that everything had been a lie. That the woman who had borne him, was not the mother he knew at all. He was torn up inside, part of him wanting to go back in time to the years when his family had been whole and happy. But another part of him knew that it had all been a lie, he'd known at the time that something was wrong, it just took him too long to figure it out. Then his life took on a new shape, filling a new family where the old broken one had been. Nathalie, his friends, Ladybug. Even the glimpses of his father.

There was hope now, that they could fix this. They were the heroes, that was what they were supposed to do. Protect the innocent, and for all his faults and actions through the years, his father had been innocent.

There was hope.

Apparently, hope took time. 

It more time than he wanted, and no matter how much magic they could work it was still going to take time. Max had been thrilled at the challenge but that meant that he still had to write and run the program. Then to have it translate the pages. Getting the book had been the easy part. His mother wasn't even in the house, off on another one of her shopping trips no doubt. It was the waiting, the endless waiting that was driving him nuts. Adrien was starting to claw at the walls. The house felt suffocating, stuck inside catering to the whims of the woman that would be his mother. Even in the days when his father was distant and refused to let him leave the house if at all, the house had never felt like this. He could barely even leave as Chat Noir. 

Days and days and days, he just wanted to feel free again. The old recurring nightmare from his college days was starting to come back. He just couldn't take it anymore. All the years of therapy gone in a fortnight.

He had just jumped free of the window and out into the Paris night, after his mother's last check-in of the evening (hopefully) when the call chimed. He answered breathless in his excitement fumbling with the stick.

"Chat Noir, you have got to see this." The equally excited voice of Max exclaimed. He changed course and dropped through the window into Max's room. Max welcomed him distractedly as he held sheets of paper in one arm while he pinned them to the wall. Ladybug dropped in with a little thump on the hardwood floor behind him.

"Hey, guys!" Max looked wild like he hadn't slept in a while but was on the trail of a major breakthrough. "This is nuts. When Markov and I started reading the translation, holy shit. I mean we all knew that Hawkmoth wanted your miraculous, but like, reading this it all makes sense. I mean, we all know that the miraculous, all of them are powerful. They can manipulate the laws of physics and shit." He pushed at his slipping glassed with the back of one hand subsequently whacking himself in the face with the page he was holding.

Chat wandered over to see what Max had posted to the wall first. It read like some mystical mumbo-jumbo, sounding more like ancient Chinese philosophy, than science. Which thanks to his knowledge of Chinese and subsequently the culture, he could understand to some extent, but it usually went beyond his ability to grasp. "What are you saying?"

"Ladybug is creation," Max walked back to the first pages the rest now tacked up as well. With a capped marker in his hand he used it to tap at the page, there was a picture of said miraculous on the page. He moved to the next one, "The black cat is destruction. Yes, I know you know this," He waived off any interruptions. "These two must both exist and must always have each other. They represent the two sides of everything." Max uncapped the marker and drew a circle over the two pages, bisecting it with a wiggly line. He drew on one side a smaller circle coloring it black, he did the same on the other side instead drawing marks in the larger body. The symbol for yin and yang covered the wall.

"This matches up with the immutable laws of the universe, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. These two miraculous when used at the same time keep the world in balance. It is this duality that dictates the rules of these miraculous. With the right control," Max spun bright eyed on the duo, "you could do anything."

"How does this help us?" Chat asked, eyes lingering on the yin half of the symbol a little wary.

"This section, states that if one person controlled both powers at the same time, they would have the ability to manipulate reality, " Max circled another section in thick dark lines. He turned back to yin yang thwacking it with the butt of the marker like a teacher, "But everything must remain in balance. For every change, there must be an equal detraction. A price if you will.

"Now, you would never be able to stop the price of the wish, but with the right understanding and control you could direct the price, making it effect a specific 'thing' instead of just letting it happen and hoping for the best. "

"Does it say anything about wish reversal?"

"Reversal? No. You can't just snap your fingers and undo what has been done, like dissolving a sentimonster or something. Especially when you consider that with the ability to shape reality, if reality was changed then no one would know it because that would become the history that we have always known. It's like time travel. If you alter something in the past and it changes the future, no one but you would know that anything had changed, because you were the locus of the change. You alone would retain any memory of a different world. Everyone else would only know the altered future.

"However, if you could tell what had been altered, I suppose that making another wish could theoretically undo what had been done by the previous wish. I wouldn't recommend it though." Max crossed his arms shaking his head.

"What? Why not?" Adrien had leaned forward but pulled back.

"Too put that much power with one person," Max stopped, not sure how to phrase the answer, he chewed on the inside of his cheek. "Have you heard the saying ' absolute power corrupts absolutely'? It would be like that. The strength of the power has more of a chance of breaking the mind of the person who wields than actually granting a wish. It would need complete focus of the mind and spirit. If you tried to do it while not absolutely clear headed, it would probably kill you."

Ladybug placed her hand on Chat Noir's shoulder. The touch made him jump. "Master Fu said the same thing."

"There has to be something we can do. It's not fair!" He pushed roughly away from the wall, only just stopping at the window and not hoping out.

"Weren't you listening?" Max asked, his voice was imperious and disdainful, like scolding a little boy who never listened. Chat whirled back around his eyes blazing. He met the squared shoulders and unflinching form of Max. The other boy, who had been so short when Adrien had met him, had since sprouted up to rival Adrien's own lofty height.

"What did you say?" Chat growled, the cat part or him making the sound rumble through his chest like an actual feline.

"Did you even listen to me?" Max was unyielding. "Or did everything I say just go out the other ear. You and Ladybug have the, the," he repeated the word putting more stress on it, "most powerful of all the miraculous. Not Hawkmoth, nor Bunnyx, nor Viperion or any of the others could get anywhere near your raw power. The two of you could move worlds." He pointed at the two of them, his voice breathless like he had forgotten to breathe during his rant.

"What?" the question was small; all the wind had fallen out of his sails.

"You have the miraculous of destruction, and she had creation. You are the two main forces, if you work together, with your powers- " He trailed off hands flailing to try and finish the sentence.

"Are you saying that we," Ladybug stepped toward the boys her hands out and open, "could alter reality?"

"Yes, and the strain probably wouldn't kill you." Max turned back to his wall of papers.

"Holy shit," Chat backed up until his back hit the wall and he slid into a seated position.

"We had this power all a long?" Ladybug focused on Max with a laser like intensity.

"Yes, and no." He pushed his glasses up with one finger. "Theoretically, the miraculous have that power, or else they would never be able to do it ever regardless of who wielded them. But you two, no. You didn't understand your powers, you couldn't hold a transformation after using your powers for years. None of us could. We couldn't have tapped into the full powers of any of the miraculous."

"You are saying that it is possible now?"

"Your powers have grown. Haven't you noticed?"

Chat looked up to the forms of Ladybug and Max. His mind a whirling vortex. All of the 'what ifs' ran though his mind like stampeding elephants, it hurt to think of all of the implications. His hands flattened his cat ears. "We should never have heard this."

The other two turned to look at him. Max freezing mid word, and Ladybug surprised.

"Isn't this what you wanted to hear?"

"Yes, no, I don't know!" he hands thumped down against his knees. "We should have never learned this. We know too much now."

"You would have to work perfectly in sync together mentally and spiritually, with full access to your powers to make it work." Max said, he crossed his arms after pushing his glasses up again. "It would be unlikely to work."

"Didn't you just say, 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'?" Chat shot back, raising to his feet with the lithe grace of his namesake. Without another word he jumped through the open window and bounced through the night. He didn't head home, and he didn't listen to the calls of Ladybug trying to catch him. Adrien headed into the darkness of the late night, even though this city never slept.

The zip of the yo-yo reached his ears one second before the line tightened and he slammed to a stop. He went flying backward as his partner jerked him back at her mercy. He hit the roof lacking his usual grace, the air rushing from his lungs.

"What the hell, Chat?" Ladybug demand using the benefit of the angle to tower over him.

"What?"

"You literally begged me for this! You persuade me to go through with all of this and now you just change your mind?" She seethed. "I stole that translation from Master Fu for you!"

"We can't do it. We would be doing the same thing that Hawkmoth did and manipulating the fabric of reality. And if we fucked it up, we would always know." Chat rolled himself into a sitting position, flexing at the wire which didn't budge.

"So, you are ready to give up? You begged me to trust you, you took my heart and held it in your hands to beg me for this. Do you really want your father back or are you just afraid of being without him?"

"I am fucking terrified!" Chat screamed. "I'm so afraid that it feels like my lungs have stopped working. I never thought, no matter how bad it ever got between us, that I would ever not have him. After I lost my mother, I almost understood the way that he acted because deep down inside I was so fucking scared of losing him too. And now, now he really is gone, and I don't know what to do!" Chat curled to press his face to his knees, still bound by her yo-yo, to catch the tears. There was a zing and the yo-yo dropped free.

"I can't imagine what you are feeling," She sank down on her knees next to him. She wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace. He let her.

"I love him. Even when he was hard, demanding, overprotective, and distant. He's my father for god sakes. I can't just -he can't be gone." He roughly scrubbed away the tears. "And the worst part of all of this, he brought my mother back. The woman who disappeared in the first place. The fucking reason I feel like this and, and" he stuttered, "She's not the same woman. It must have been rose tinted glasses or something, but the woman is manipulative and terrifying in her own way. I can't do it. I would do anything to have that hard, bastard back, but I won't break the world for him. I can't be that selfish."

"I would do anything to help you, Chat." Ladybug pulled him closer, and he turned burying his face against her shoulder and cried. He curled into his friend taking the comfort she provided.

“I miss him so much,” He held tight to her arm, “and I hate him. I hate him. He was Hawkmoth for god’s sake. The bastard who literally destroyed Paris twice a week for ten years. Which I keep forgetting for some stupid reason. I keep forgetting that he was the bad guy, our enemy because I miss him so much.

"I want the world to go back to the way it was. Even when Hawkmoth was terrorizing us, it felt better than this." he mumbled thickly. "But I can't be selfish. Thank you for helping me, my lady." This brought a strangled laugh out of her.

"It's been forever since you stopped calling me all those names." She shoved him away.

"It felt right." he laughed a forced sound as he flopped back on the roof tiles. It had been a while since he had been in love with her. She shoved his hip with the flat of her foot. He chuckled for real. "You know, none of my civilian friends know. I don't know how to tell them any of this. Part of me is afraid that if I do tell them, it will make it real. That there really is nothing I can do about it, and he really is gone forever. I know I'm worrying them, and I can't even leave the house because of my psychotic mother."

"We know there is a chance, Chat, but the choice is yours."

His baton beeped. It was the alarm he had set to make sure he made it home before his mother noticed. "Thanks, Ladybug." he ruffled a hand through her hair, which earned him an undignified squawk and a kick to his shin as he jumped off the roof, narrowly dodging.

He dropped into his room, just before the door cracked open to show the wan face of his mother.

"Oh, Adrien. You are awake?" She sounded faraway, and her eyes seemed clouded until they focused on him intensely. 

"Uh, yeah, couldn't sleep Mother." He rubbed at the back of his neck, flashing a sheepish smile. As his hand dropped back down his ring must have caught the light. She stepped into his room; her head cocked to the side.

"What's that? I've never noticed that ring." She caught his hand with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Something Dad gave me ages ago," He said trying to pull his hand gently free. She wouldn't let go. He bussed her cheek, distracting her enough to pull free, "It's late Mother, we should sleep. " He walked her to the door and ushered her out. He shut and locked the door, calling a good night through it.

"What was that?" Plagg floated through the door of his cheese cabinet.

"I don't know, she was interested in the ring." He played absently with said ring.

"We did cut it close," Plagg took a bite from his cheese wedge.

"Oh hell, do you think she knows?" Adrien looked up at the kwami, genuine fear on his face. The kwami only shrugged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that was a lot. I wonder what's going to happen next. Look forward to next chapter, I'm having a lot of fun with it. It should be up in a couple days.


	10. Hawk Moth obliterated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How nuts is Emilie? I'd say peanut butter factory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love to my beta! 
> 
> Let's start with the question: how much do you hate Emilie?

There was no money, Gabriel had locked her out. To be sure, she still had her money. She wasn't stupid, they had not merged accounts when they married, though she had rather enjoyed spending his money. The problem was that having been 'missing' for ten years made it apparently a problem to access your money. Somewhere in those ten years she had been declared legally dead, whatever that was. Which also meant no money, just in a fancy way. Gabriel had closed the account she'd had been allowed to use. So, now she had absolutely no money. That was not pleasing.

No money. No miraculous. Everything was different in this new world, a world that knew of the power of the miraculous, with countless pretenders running about and playing at superhero. A world where she didn't have the power she rightly deserved. Gabriel had made the wish, as he had been instructed. She was back, but her miraculous were gone. The Ladybug and cat, the butterfly, even her beautiful peacock were all gone. Oh, to be sure they existed but she didn't have them. Gabriel fighting until the end.

Damn that man's stubbornness. Damn that man.

Emilie snatched the vase off the mantle and threw it hard to shatter against the wall, raining the silver slivers of broken glass like a deadly film of debris. She looked at the pretty mess she had made. It made her want to remake the world. She growled low in her throat and flung the pictures off the wall. She ripped the room that stank of Gabriel apart, ruining that last vestiges of his presence. Clear the air free of that horrible, weak, worthless man. She was a one-woman wrecking ball, there to destroy everything that made the world imperfect.

She stalked through the door, over the broken glass not feeling at it cut into the soles of her feet. Trailing bloody footprints into Gabriel's work room, she tore it apart. She tore at the bolts of fabric lining the wall. Ripped the half-made dress from the form and sent them both to the floor. She spilled beads and lace and everything else to join the mess of bloody footprints.

He took everything from her. He left the years that she had been 'missing' gone dropping her into a brand-new world without the very things that she had wanted. Defiant bastard. She wanted to shred him, she wanted to mess him up, but he had even taken himself away to deny her even that pleasure.

It was funny. When she agreed to the marriage arrangement, she thought it could only bring her more money, power, and attention but it had only end with her having a child and losing everything. To be sure, she got her attention the media went berserk when they realized she was back. She slipped right back into the life she had before, desired and admired. But it wasn't the same.

Too much time had passed.

She loved Adrien, he was her son, but this was not her Adrien. He'd done too much growing away from her. What she need was to go back. Back to the time when he was her Adrien.

She needed a new reality. That was it. She had change this reality, make it the one it should have been. She needed the miraculous to have the whole of reality at her fingertips. Just like she had always wanted. She needed to fix everything.

It was her turn to win. No one else would take anything from her, not Gabriel, not Nathalie that whore, no one.

Now, how should she start?

~

Emilie swept into the office of _Gabriel_ , like a model on the catwalk. Everyone near enough to notice, turned to watch her open mouthed as she swept in. She breezed right past the assistant that sat at the desk outside the oversized office of the CEO, a room that had barely been used by Gabriel in recent years. The door now said, Nathalie Sancœur. Her lip curled derisively as she slammed the door open, ignoring the frantic calls of the wet-behind-the-ears secretary.

Nathalie looked up, over the top of her glasses, her face supremely unimpressed as she surveyed her visitor. One eyebrow raised as she dismissed the secretary still trying to stop Emilie. Emilie turned a haughty smirk on the wilting thing as they sulked away. There was a soft click at the doors were pulled closed by the secretary.

Emilie looked around, her lip curling into a sneer. The office had not changed much in the ten years since she had last seen it, still baring the signs of Gabriel's influence on the walls and in the décor. At least she added flowers. Sickening. Still after her husband, even when he's dead.

"The days when whores become queens." Emilie sauntered forward, her fingers trailing over the knick-knacks set along the edge, not caring if they fell from her careless touch clattering to the glass top. The name plate was front and center. Emilie slapped it face down on the desk and smiled coldly at the other woman.

"What do you want Emilie?" Nathalie ignored her jab.

"You know what I want." She cooed.

"You'll never get them." The raven-haired woman leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, trying so hard to feel like she was in charge. Emilie giggled, fluttering a hand dismissively.

"Oh, yes," she smiled shark like, more teeth than grin. "Yes, I will."

"You will never win again." Nathalie stood; her hands flat on the desktop as she glared at Emilie. How cute, didn't know that whores had claws. "I won't let you."

"As if you could stop me," she laughed. "I already know just were to start."

Nathalie's jaw clenched, and she glared futilely back. No, Nathalie could not stop her, not this time, not ever. The meddling Gabriel was gone now. She would finally be free of this wretched woman. Emilie was going to win, and all the power of the universe will be at her fingertips. The self-satisfied smiled curled across her face only growing in the face of Nathalie's infantile struggling.

"If you touch one hair on his head," Nathalie growled.

"Bravo," Emilie brought her hands together in a slow sarcastic clap. "You almost sounded like a mother. You forget, he's my son. Not yours."

"You gave him up the moment you chose power over him."

"That's where your wrong, bitch. He chose me. You had your chance, and he chose me." There was a little chuckle, light and flippant. She pouted the next words, "Bless him."

"Oh, Emilie, you think too highly of yourself."

"No. It is you who think too highly of yourself." She slammed her hands down on the desk across from the other woman so that they were face to face, "you think that because my waste of a husband put you in this place of power that you have control. You are wrong. Pecker power is as weak as the man who let it lead him. You have no power. So, there's nothing you can do to stop me." She sneered reaching up to condescendingly pat Nathalie's cheek, right over the bruise she had put there. The other woman pulled back, a small hiss accompanying her frown.

“So, good luck,” Emilie laughed. Straightening up she surveyed Gabriel's little whore. She righted her couture and walked out. The little finger flick of a wave over her shoulder was dismissive, "ta-ta."

Suspicions confirmed. How easy that had been. Just rile her up and let her go. Emilie suspected that the ring on her sons' hand was really a miraculous. The flash of green light. His own shifty behavior. How close it was, Emilie would have never thought that it could be so simple. If she could just get that ring, getting the others would be so easy. Endless power was within her grasp.

~

The room was quiet, as an empty room normally is, there was the low gentle hum of the air-conditioning, the settling sounds of the house. The room was built for a teenage boy, huge and filled with all the latest technology. A large TV, a huge collection of games and DVDs. It should be paradise for Adrien, but he seemed to want to escape as often as possible.

Emilie climbed the spiral stair, onto the little balcony for his game shelves. She trailed a finger over the smooth spines of the cases, her steps slow and deliberate in the darkness of the room. She reached the edge of the little overhang and leaned forward on the railing, her forearms holding her weight as she waited.

It didn't take long. There was a thump, as the black clad form dropped into the room. A flash of green light surged, and her son stood in the middle of the room below her, where just moments ago Chat Noir stood. She clicked the button, held in her hand, the lights flaring on all around them. Adrien's head whipped around frantically.

"Hello, son. Or should I say Chat Noir?" Emilie pushed off the railing, watching him imperiously from above.

"Mother?" he stuttered in his shock. She pursed her lips unhappily. She slowly descended the stairs, watching him all the while. He mumbled something to himself eyes casting about, "Nathalie said, but I didn't believe her. Why didn’t I believe her?"

"Oh, my boy." She reached out for him, her hands cupping his cheeks. "Don't you know how dangerous this is? How could I forgive myself for letting you run around in such peril?” One of her hands caught his right hand, the hand with the ring and held it up gently between them. "This thing only brings destruction."

"But, Mother," He paused, lulled in her hold. She was calming, soothing. Only the deepest concern radiated from her touch, brushing away his protest.

"You shouldn't have to keep this burden," She leaned up pressing a kiss to his forehead. Her fingers curled around his own, and she pulled the ring free. The moment he realized what had happened, his eyes so like her own flared with betrayal. She smiled feline fierce. "Let me take it for you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How much do you hate her now?
> 
> And hey, thanks for reading.


	11. Hawk Moth resurrected, part un

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the ultimate show down of ultimate destiny. Good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are coming to the end. Thank you for coming this far with me.

Nathalie woke with a start. Her heart hammered in her chest feeling as though she run a marathon, her night clothes drenched. Something was wrong. She could feel it in the core of her, all the way to her bones. She fumbled for her glasses, eventually getting them on her nose she checked the time. 4 am. That nagging feeling of unease settled in her stomach and made it clench painfully. 

Stumbling free of the bed her pulled on the first clothes she could find, her fingers blindly grasping things from her closet. She had to get to the Agreste house. She had to get there now. It felt like the world was trying to hold her back, as she stumbled from her place. Her hands shook making it hard to get her key in the ignition. It took her several tries and hushed curses before the car finally started. 

The blissfully empty streets of dead a.m. at least allowed her to get there in record time. Thankfully, she still had the gate switch in her car, so she was able to pull into the empty courtyard with no problem. Slowing to a stop in the still courtyard, a frisson of fear scuttled up her spine.

Everything was still, the face of the house dark, as to be expected. It was a weird sort of silence though, like the house was holding its breath waiting for something to happen. As Nathalie stepped from the car, she found out what that was. 

The low whistle of air being moved too quickly was the only warning she had before the baton end smashed through the driver side window right where she had been standing. Nathalie had thrown herself to the side just in time to catch pieces of glass across her cheek as she hit the ground hard. She bit back a groan. Her hand pressed to her cheek pulling back dark with blood as she squinted into the dark night. Darker in the courtyard thanks to the lack of lights. Damn it, Gabriel. She searched the shadows praying she had better night vision. 

She caught the bat like swing of the baton as it came hurtling towards her prone form. It hurt, the hit and the stength it took to keep the thing from beaning her in the head, the force of it rattling up her arms and into her shoulders, making everything ache. Yanking with all her might, the baton came free and went clattering away on the stones.

"Impressive, for a whore." Emilie snarled, stepping out of one of the deeper shadows, her green eyes glowing and cat-like behind the mask. In one fluid motion Nathalie flipped onto her feet glaring at the other woman, now parading around as Chat Noir. 

"What have you done to him?" Nathalie demanded. Her hands curling into fists at her side. 

"Nothing you need to worry your little head about," her laugh was taunting and seriously grating. Nathalie blocked the knee with both hands, shoving the other woman back off balance. Pushing her lead Nathalie lunged forward throwing both palms forward into the meaty soft stomach of the other woman, her finger crooked tearing at the other woman as she fell back.

Emilie made a strangled sound as all the air rushed out of her lungs. Nathalie dropped into a crouch sweeping the blonde’s legs. She went crashing to the ground. Her green eyes flaring, she kicked out at Nathalie wildly, forcing her back. Nathalie wiped the back of her hand over her cheek that was slowly leaking blood, leaving her cheek feeling tight and tacky.

"You thought last time that because you had the miraculous, you would win. You were wrong." Nathalie watched impassively as Emilie got back to her feet, not as steady as she had been.

“I did win.” They circled each other.

“Did you? Or did you only lose ten years?”

“That won’t matter, not anymore.” The blonde snarled.

“How? You could never even _hope_ to win.”

"You are wrong! I have the miraculous. I have the power!" Emilie's eyes glittered maliciously. "I will get the Ladybug, as I should have had all along and the world will be mine!" She rushed, fist flying at a surprising speed.

Nathalie fell back a step at the flurry of attacks. She blocked and dodged right into a side kick to her hip that sent her rolling across the cobblestones. Nathalie couldn't help the groan that came this time. She pushed up on her elbows, flicking her hair back out of her eyes with a jerk of her head to glare at Emilie.

“You’ll have to do better than that if you want to beat me, you bitch.” She spat some blood to the stones. Rolling forward she twisted into a spin that put her back on her feet.

“A bitch is a dog, I’m Black Cat.”

Emilie's fist came hurtling toward her face, her anger making her predictable, the move was telegraphed in every preceding motion. Nathalie stepped aside, letting the hit whistle past her nose. Grabbing Emilie's wrist to keep her in place, she dropped her shoulder and threw her elbow up into the blonde's nose. There was a satisfying crunch as Emilie wailed jerking back. Blood coursed over the lower half of her face. Nathalie smirked.

Emilie snarled and lunged again. She was dodged easily, Nathalie side kicking the target of her back left clear from the wild lunge. Emilie went sprawling to the ground. Nathalie clearly outclassed the blonde, as she sent Emilie reeling back once more. 

"You think you can beat me?" Emilie said, her voice thick and nasally behind her broken nose. She threw her body towards Nathalie, like a cat pounces on a mouse. Nathalie dropped leaving the blonde to fly over her head. The Black Cat rolled, ass over tea kettle from her misjudged leap. Snarling and spitting, like a feral cat. Emilie launched forward again; cat claws out ready to rend the skin from her bones.

"It sure looks like I can," she met Emilie's attack head on. Her leg lashing out in a series of kicks, trying to keep the cat at bay. Emilie spun past her leg and into the space before Nathalie. She was too close and before Nathalie could react Emilie's fists smashed into her. Nathalie tried to retreat but Emilie caught her hair in a clawed grip, forcing her down, so that Emilie could tower over her. She yanked Nathalie's head back baring her throat to the Black Cat.

"I have the power of the black cat," Emilie tried to sneer, but she couldn't quite manage. She grinned instead, the blood outline her teeth, her bared teeth look like a murder scene. "How do you think I got it? I can beat anyone."

"If you hurt him, I swear to god, I will hunt you to the ends of this earth." Nathalie bared her teeth back. One hand gripped the hand that was tangled in her hair. Her other hand whipped out and into Emilie's throat. The blonde choked trying to pull back, but Nathalie rose still tightly gripping the other hand. She twisted Emilie's hand around up the center of her back sending the blonde to her knees.

"You'd do that for me?" it came from above. Both women looked up to the balcony that framed the courtyard. Gabriel and his fucking balconies. The teal clad form seemed to glow out of the darkness. Snake like, the form of Aspik stepped into view, one foot propped on the railing. "I'm touched." 

Distracted by the snake's arrival. Emilie was able to scramble away and retrieve her baton. Adrien, as it was Adrien, dropped down lightly next to Nathalie, the strings of his lyre singing from the impact. Her eyes skimmed over him, looking for anywhere he might be hurt. His hurt was all on the inside so there was nothing to be found.

"You're alright?" She asked, reaching out as if to check though touch. He nodded, his lips twisting into a wry smile. Then it was as if his eyes adjusted, the green eyes widened in horror.

"Are you okay?" Adrien indicated her bleeding cheek, which had shed drying streaks of blood across her face and down her neck. There was a purpling bruise visible on the other cheekbone, in addition to the ugly yellow already on her jaw.

"Yeah," She glanced over her shoulder searching for Emilie.

"You don't look okay." Adrien did appear convinced.

"It's nothing," She turned back, dropping a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be fine. I've had worse."

His eyebrows shot skyward at that; the motion was partially hidden but the snake cowl he was wearing. He looked like he wanted to comment on that, be he changed his mind instead saying.

"Sorry, Nathalie. I don't know why I didn't believe you."

"You didn't want to, it's your mother. Who would want to believe something like that of their mother?" Her hand touched his cheek. He crumpled and he threw his arms around her in a tight hug, which hurt a little as it pulled at her side, where she bruised her ribs in the fight with Emilie. This was the wrong time to show emotion, a hallmark of the Agreste men, but she couldn't help hugging him back. And then, like a sick parody of years earlier, Nathalie saw the baton swing for Adrien as his back was turned. She spun, using the force to throw Adrien free and drop to the ground a second before the baton whistled uselessly past.

"Naughty kitty," there was a zing and zip as the yo-yo wrapped around Emilie, making her drop the baton. "We don't attack innocent people."

"She's not innocent," Emilie snarled and gnashed her teeth, but Ladybug held firm. 

Nathalie lay on the ground breathing through the frantic thumping of her heart. The fear that had shot through her with the memory of that exact move nearly froze her, her uncontrolled fall to the ground didn’t help either as her ribs were jarred. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice. Emilie doesn’t play fair and never has. Adrien appeared above her, one green hand reaching out. He was fine, she felt some of the fear flow away. He pulled her back to her feet, emotion swimming in his eyes.

"I don't know, Kitty, she looks pretty innocent to me." Ladybug’s calm voice echoed in the courtyard. 

"She's a conniving whore!"

"Wow," Ladybug said mildly. "So, she needs a superhero to beat her up?"

"You take that back!" Adrien-as-Aspik turned on his mother. "She never did anything to you! You are just so fucking -" he broke off with an inarticulate scream and launched himself at her captive form, Nathalie tried to catch him, but he was gone so fast her fingers gripped at empty air. There was a zip and zing as Ladybug released Emilie to catch Adrien. 

"Uh-uh, we don't attack captive people Chat." She scolded pulling him to her side, but by then Emilie had slunk away. Running away from the superior threat that the two heroes presented. Ladybug made an unhappy noise in the back of her throat, she turned on Aspik. "Want to tell me what some lady is doing with your miraculous?"

"It," he paused. "It's my mother, she tricked me." 

"How the hell did your mother even figure it out? Have you always been this bad at keeping secrets or is this a new development?"

"Life's been a little bit difficult lately," Adrien said sharply. 

"Life is always difficult that's what makes it life."

There was a rush of air as he sighed. "Do you remember what I told you, about what she did to my father? Well, I don't know but I think she wants your miraculous too. She's the one that always wanted them." 

"There's no way we are letting that happen. "

"We have to fix this." his voice was solemn and firm. There was a hidden meaning in those words that Ladybug understood that Nathalie did not. 

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Right," Ladybug said. "Then we need to get your miraculous back from your cray-cray mother."

Nathalie snorted at that, which brought the heroes attention back to her. 

"Ma'am, are you okay?" Ladybug asked. The pair dropped down onto the cobblestones a few feet away.

"Yes, of course." She brushed her hair back from her face. Her hair had fallen free during the fight with Emilie, she simply hadn't noticed until now. Ladybug nodded, taking her answer at face value, her eyes turning away from the civilian and scanning for their new enemy.

"We are going to need to find her," Ladybug started tapping on her yo-yo. "Before she starts destroying Paris."

Nathalie agreed her own gaze searching the shadows again even though part of her knew that Emilie was long gone, scampered off to parts unknown to lick her wounds and probably make a new plan. Adrien's hand touched hers lightly. She turned to look at him questioningly.

"Nathalie," He held out his hand, there sitting in his palm was the peacock brooch. It nearly blended with the color of his snake suit. "This is your fight as much as ours. Will you help?"

"Are you sure?" She asked as Ladybug gasped an affronted, "Chat!"

"More than sure," Adrien placed the pin in her hand. Nathalie's fingers curled around it briefly a faint smile gracing her lips. She reached up pinning the brooch to the front of her shirt. Duusu popped out squealing in happiness. The little kwami nuzzled her bruised cheek.

"Duusu," She gave the little blue kwami a pat on the head, a smile in her voice. "Spread my feathers."

There was a flash of blue light, and there stood Mayura but gone was the puffy cuffs and collar leaving a flat edge behind. Gone, the pillbox and veil, leaving only the sleek bob. The spray of the coat's tail seemed less bulky, allowing for more fluid movement. The fan that slapped into her hand was free of feathers, instead burnished metal sang in her hold. The struts tipped with sharp blades.

"Planning on killing someone?" Ladybug asked scornfully eyeing the wicked looking fan. Her mistrust was not disguised. Nathalie zipped it open with a sharp smack. It glimmered in the faint light of the streetlights.

"Only if they try to kill me." Nathalie responded. A smile as wicked as her fan accompanying her words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This part one of a double update! Don't forget to read Chapter 12!


	12. Hawk Moth resurrected, part deux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the ultimate show down of ultimate destiny. Good guys, bad guys, and explosions as far as the eye can see.

"Chat, a word." Ladybug towed the snake suited Adrien over to the side away from the form of Mayura. She was testing her fan making ominous swishing sounds with careful motions that seemed to flow one into the other. It was beautiful and terrifying. Adrien was thankful that he'd never been on Nathalie's bad side. Chat Noir didn't count, though, even he'd never seen Mayura look quite that terrifying ever.

"That is Mayura."

"Yes, it is."

"Are you absolutely certain?"

"Ladybug, this is her fight too." Adrien implored her, "The black cat is the reason we are in this mess. She's the reason that Hawkmoth is gone, and as you should be able to tell, she’s got it out for Mayura too. Mayura deserves to be a part of this."

"Fine," Ladybug growled, "What am I calling you?"

"Aspik?" Adrien's eyebrows hidden by the cowl, furrowed. That's right, Ladybug never remembered the fiasco with Desperada, he had never used this miraculous with her, that she knew. 

"Okay, Aspik. Let’s crush this kitty.” Casting one last wary look at Mayura, she flung her yo-yo out and zipped into the sky. Adrien looked to Mayura, who leaped into the sky following Ladybug.

It was a different fight now. The Black Cat had changed tactics, using her Cataclysm with deadly accuracy. Adrien was thankful to have taken the snake miraculous because the second chance was the only thing keeping them alive, for the moment. Not even Mayura’s accuracy with that wicked fan was enough to get them close enough to getting the miraculous back. Nor the extra help of her sentimonster.

Ladybug and Aspik fell back as Mayura distracted the cat. Panting and gasping for breath the duo leaned against the rough bricks of chimney. Ladybug looked at him, the uncertainty something he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Now, might be a good time for that lucky charm?” He bumped her shoulder with his, a little smile on his face before peering around the chimney to check on Mayura and Black Cat. She must have agreed because a moment later she was calling out for her lucky charm. He looked back to see a gong mallet fall into her hand.

She looked down at the stick, then around them. The frustration on her face indicating that she had no idea what it was for, until the realization swept across her face. 

There was a scream of pure rage as Mayura skidded and rolled along the rooftop past them. Her head came up slowly, before she managed to push herself all the way up. Black Cat was advancing a terrifying glint in her eye. She was almost level with the duo, when Mayura shot across the roof and tackled Ladybug and himself off, seconds before the bubbling black hand swiped where they had been standing.

Ladybug quickly caught on and zipped her yo-yo, slowing their descent and dropping them, a bit clumsily, into a deserted alley. They hit the ground hard. Mayura stumbling into the wall and Aspik landing on his back, with a groan.

“Well that was, interesting.” Adrien remarked wryly as he pushed himself up on his hands. Mayura wearily leaned on the wall. Her eyes seemed to focus on the lucky charm.

“You got something that will help, Ladybug?” Mayura nodded at the lucky charm.

“It looks like we are going to need some help. More help." Ladybug’s eyes flicked to both of them and down at the red and black mottled lucky charm.

"The whole crew?" Adrien rose to his feet and brushed off.

"I'll let you know," She tucked the lucky charm at her hip. "Take Mayura with you, see if you can find out where she went." Ladybug zipped off in search of more miraculous and their allies. 

"Gotcha," Adrien turned back to Nathalie, no Mayura. It was odd to face her as an ally and not an enemy. Knowing that Nathalie was the one under the blue helped. "Ready?"

Together they bounded off in the other direction. The sun was rising, lighting the city with weak white light. Paris awakened in the dim glow; the city started to move again. They bounded from roof top to roof top, hues of blue and green, trying to find where his mother might have gone. 

The was a creaking groan of metal the split the drowsy morning air. He searched for the source of the sound for only one second before the Eiffel Tower tilted. The giant metal spire twisted with the sound of metal rivets popping, the tops pinging with awesome destruction into the nearby buildings. Then the Eiffel Tower fell. The ground beneath it shuddered sending ripples and shock waves through the city. 

Nathalie met his look a wry expression on her face. Found her. 

They were halfway there when Ladybug joined him, followed by Carapace and Rena Rouge. Pegasus stepped through a portal onto the roof next to them. King Monkey dropped down moments later. 

"Guess you didn't need my help to find the place," He laughed mirthlessly. "What a Cat-astrophy." 

He waited for the groans.

There was a moment as the heroes realized that Mayura was standing on the roof with them. All of them immediately dropped into offensive stances ready to attack. Adrien stood before her like a shield, arms spread to stop them. The tension of the roof thickened like cookie dough, becoming thick and cloying.

"She's with us."

"Like hell she is." Rena snarled. Her flute held before her like a sword, ready to cut Mayura down with a musical crescendo, because that would be super effective.

"I want to stop this pretender as much as you do, little heroes." Mayura said, tucking her fan under her arm. As though trying to appear less dangerous. This only seemed to draw attention to the scary looking weapon.

"She's the bad guy." Carapace reasserted as he glared at the blue woman.

"No, she's not." Adrien insisted. He looked pleadingly at Ladybug. Her mouth twisted momentarily.

"He's right. Mayura is with us, for now. We need to focus on the more pressing threat. We are facing an evil Chat Noir. So, the goal is to get the miraculous back." Ladybug brought attention back to her, cutting through the tension with the skill of one long practiced at the art. Ladybug gave a sharp look to Pegasus who looked between the two of them. 

“Isn’t our poor punner here, Chat Noir?” Rena Rouge asked.

“It certainly isn’t our Chat Noir we are fighting. We need to overwhelm and distract, in order to get her to de-transform or get the miraculous. Monkey, you are going to be important in this. Aspik, make sure you trigger that second chance because we can't let her get away. Mayura, we are going to need you in the front. Make her mad. " Ladybug ignored the question, which was answer enough. 

"Shouldn't be hard," Mayura smirked wryly.

The group neared the Eiffel Tower’s crumpled form. Their view from the sky ended as they hit the Trocadero plaza. The media was already there, Nadja Chamack aimed at a camera as she hung part way out of the news helicopter. 

_"Don't be bemused it's just the news, I'm Nadja Chamack and it looks like there is a new Chat Noir on the scene. She has just destroyed the Eiffel Tower. That's some statement she's making. After the sudden disappearance of Hawkmoth and our Heroes only a weeks ago, can we expect a speedy resolution to this debacle?_

_"Wait, what is this?" Nadja turned pointed excitedly at the band of heroes. "Ladybug is here! She's back, and so are the rest. There's Rena Rouge, Carapace, King Monkey Pegasus, and Viperion? Wait, that's not Viperion, but another snake hero? And oh my, is that Mayura? But she's with the heroes? What are they going to do? Stay tuned as we bring you live coverage from the scene."_

The miniscule form of Emilie clad in Chat Noir costume, perched on one mangled leg of the Eiffel tower. Previously having been attached to the ground it was now the highest point of the metal monstrosity. Though far away, she appeared utterly relaxed, one leg dangled lazily of the side. Raising her hand to her mouth she called out, somehow the sound reaching everyone.

"The Black Cat will have your miraculous, little bug!" 

"Doubtful, very doubtful." Ladybug brushed off the statement, swinging her yo-yo in a lazy arc. The effected calm that she projected belied the underlying tenseness, stringing her taught like a bow. "Careful everyone, this won't be like fighting an akuma. She's got cataclysm and knows how to use it." 

Adrien dropped a hand on her shoulder, "With all of us there is no way we won't win." He triggered the second chance. 

"Immobilize and extract," Ladybug swung out into the empty space between the roof and the fallen tower. Pegasus sketched a portal and appeared directly behind the black cat. He was kicked back through it slamming to the roof. Mayura strode through the portal her fan cracking open. She went through swinging the arc of the fan slashing at the black cat. There was a furious shriek. With that it was a free for all. Mayura was a deadly force with her fan, mesmerizing to watch.

Armed with her Cataclysm, the black cat was a hard target to hit. She wielded that cataclysm with deadly precision coming much to close the miraculous of several of the heroes. The only one that could get remotely close was Mayura. Her ability to break the cat’s foundation was uncanny, her fan lengthening her reach.

Rena spun an illusion. Pegasus opened a portal right before the black cat and aimed to grab her. She lunged with the baton, which vaporized the illusion to reveal Monkey king, and his uproar, inches away from touching her. Her cataclysm shot out a hairsbreadth away from King Monkey when Adrien pulled the Second Chance. 

They went again. Pegasus opened a portal for Carapace to throw his shield at the black cat. She caught the shield with a cataclysm, and it dissolved. She dove through the portal back at Pegasus, Ladybug tried to catch her but couldn't stop her before slammed her bubbling black hand into Mayura. Second Chance.

It was hard to get the uproar to the black cat. If they could just disrupt her powers, then they would be able to get the miraculous back. The Black Cat used a cataclysm on what was left of the Eiffel Tower sending dangers broken bolts of metal hurtling toward them as she bounded away Mayura close on her heels. Carapace used his Shelter to keep them safe. 

"Mayura!" Aspik called after her, the sound of the crashing metal drowning him out.

Once the metal had stopped falling, they made chase. Flying away through the air from the crumbling national monument on the string of a yo-yo. Ladybug glanced at Aspik as they flew through the air together. 

"Don't worry, I'll trigger it if we lose her." 

She huffed at that but focused on reflinging her yo-yo. 

"There! There she went in there!" Rena cried, pointing at a large ornate window, that almost looked like butterfly wings. Mayura dropped through the open port of the window and disappeared hot on the cat's tail. The rest of the heroes all dropped though the open section the window and nearly impaled themselves on the cataclysm destroyed struts and open gaping chasm where the floor should have been. Mayura nowhere to be seen.

“She trying to kill us?” Rena exclaimed as she hugged the wall. Whether she meant Mayura or the Black Cat, no one was sure.

Ladybug caught taught the yo-yo to stop their forward motion. The jolt of the reverse course was sudden, and Adrien hadn't been paying attention, distracted by the familiarity of the area, his grip slipped, and he fell straight through the floor. As Aspik he didn't have an easy way to catch himself, he was in free fall. The room below was cavernous, and he caught a glimpse of water and a circle of green and darkness. He just hoped the water was soft.

He jerked to a sudden stop from his ankle. His leg popped uncomfortably but he wasn't snake patty, so that was good. 

"Chat? You good?" Ladybug called through the opening. 

"Yeah, you can drop me." He scanned the area, watching warily for his mother, for Nathalie. He dropped the three feet to the circle of ground hard. "Not so hard, bug."

"Rather be dead?" She asked archly as she touched down. Pegasus opened a portal and the others walked through it to join them. Nathalie emerged from behind a large glass coffin, that he surprisingly hadn't noticed until then. The thing sat empty, lid gaping open.

"I'd just reverse it." speaking of second chances his last one had expired, so he triggered another one. 

"Where is she?" Monkey looked around the room. It was a ginormous cavern of a room lit by a huge light in the same shape as the window above. The circle of ground they stood on the was the only ground, the rest of the room was empty save for the layer of water that spread out under a thin catwalk. 

"Here," Black Cat’s satisfied growl came from behind them. Her cataclysm touched Ladybug before she could turn. Second Chance. He threw his lyre like a discus and caught the black cat in the face. Apparently, that thing could come in handy. The last time he had played at Aspik, he'd done tremendously bad. If only the second chance weren't so darn useful.

Mayura stepped up fan spread out along her forearm like a shield. It blocked a blow from the cat's baton. Now past the cat's defenses, baton too long to recover quickly and defend, Mayura snapped the fan closed jabbing its folded bottom down on the wrist holding the staff. There was a crack. She whipped it up the fold flat edge catching the cat's chin in a sharp upper cut. The Black Cat cursed reeling back. Her baton had slipped from her hold and dropped over the side into the water with a plop.

Mayura danced away, her fan snapping open with a snap to take an angry punch. Rena spun an illusion. Carapace charged and flung his shield at her, making the black cat drop. Her hand fell through a portal from Pegasus right into Monkey King's uproar. The image of Carapace drifted away as the illusion ended. The dark bubble on her hand immediately stopped. Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around the black cat and cinched tight. Adrien cautiously approached her struggling form. Kneeling down, he took her tightly clenched hand. 

"Let go, please." She only fought harder, trying to roll away. He pulled his lyre close and strummed it in a succession of notes. The Black Cat, Emilie, calmed her eyes glazing over a little. As the last note rung out, he pulled the ring from her finger and watched as the transformation fell. In that instant the rattlesnake hypnotism broke. She snarled and gnashed ferally as he slipped the ring home on his own finger. 

Ladybug nodded. She took the lucky charm from her waist and flung it up into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" there was a whoosh as the ceiling above them reformed whole and solid once more. Which probably meant that the Eiffel Tower was upright and lighting up the sky once again. It was like the tension left the group en masse, they sagged a little where they stood. Adrien leaning against the narrow catwalk railing.

"Plagg, Sass, unify." There was a flash, his suit altered half cat, half snake before he called Sass off and all that remained was Chat Noir, back again. "Thanks buddy," Adrien offered the little snake a snack. 

"Glad to have you back," Carapace clapped him on the shoulder. Ladybug stepped forward and slapped him. She was pissed. Rena made a choked little sound and hid a smile behind her hands when Ladybug shot her a look. 

"I want to be so mad at you for losing you miraculous, but I know that I can't. " Ladybug hissed getting right in his face, and it felt like there was more than anger behind her display. It wasn't fire he saw in her eyes, but fear.

"Bugaboo," he reached out taking one of her hands. Her fingers tightened one moment before her brain caught up and she pulled away. There was a curious swooping feeling in his chest as she turned away from him. It felt like he had hurt her more than he knew, and he didn't like that. 

"Rena, Carapace, can you keep an eye on her," she jabbed a thumb at the still tied up Emilie.

"I know someplace you can put her," Mayura said smirking. She pointed her closed fan at the open glass topped coffin. "She should feel right at home."

Emilie was not pleased by this turn of events which she displayed through screaming. Dragging the screaming thrashing woman took all three of them, Mayura, Rena, and Carapace, to get her locked into it. The coffin lid closed and there was a drastic reduction in the noise level. Bonus. 

While that was happening, Ladybug turned to Pegasus. He didn't need to say anything, the expression on his face showed that he knew what they were planning on doing. Adrien followed after Ladybug as they cleared a comfortable spot on the green ground. They were really going to do this; they were going to tap into the power of the miraculous and fix this stupid mess. Pegasus and Monkey had that well in hand. Chat Noir pulled Ladybug off to the side, though she wouldn't quite look at him.

"I'm sorry.”

"You scared me," She pushed at his chest halfheartedly.

"It was my mother, what did you want me to do? Could you have fought your mother?" He could see when she realized that when she thought about putting herself in that position, she wouldn't have fought hard either.

"All I knew is that my Kwami was waking me up because the cat miraculous was being used for evil. You have no idea," She stopped and turned away, her jaw set. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, leaning his cheek against hers. 

"I knew you cared about me," his voice was teasing. Ladybug rolled her eyes and put her hand over his face, pushing him off. He laughed and they went back to helping Pegasus. It didn’t take long to clear a reasonably comfortable section of the little island. Once they settled down in comfortable cross-legged positions across from each other, Pegasus opened a small portal, pulling back through a single piece of paper. 

"Monkey-Kong," he turned to the taller King Monkey, the nickname on his lips. "I'm going to need you to keep an uproar ready in case this shit goes sideways." 

Pegasus turned back to the Duo.

"You'll need to hold hands, since you'll need a physical connection." He waited until their hands clasped in the space between them, linking them together. "Now, you are going to meditate, but while you do this, you need to reach out to each other. Mentally."

Adrien watched as her eyes closed, her chest rose and fell with steady breaths. His eyes drifted closed, his own breaths synchronizing with hers unconsciously. Her hands felt warm in his, a light weight that felt oddly very easy. 

"Clear your minds of thought and reach out to each other. Use the bridge of your hands to guide you. "

Adrien breathed focusing on the in and out of each breath. He pushed away any stray thought, focusing back on his breath, which was surprisingly easy. He felt empty but in a good way, as though the weight of thoughts has been lifted away. He reached out toward Ladybug, searching through their joined hands. There was a moment of disorientation as direction disappeared. Then Ladybug's hands clasped his again, but it wasn't their real hands. It was more like the idea of hands tethering them together. 

She was warm and sugary like fresh baked sweets. Adrien felt like they were brushing against each other, like two sides of the coin, or the sides of yin and yang. It felt fluid and odd, without a body. Touching but not.

"Chat?" She asked, the sound coming from nowhere and all around at the same time. 

"Yeah, Ladybug?"

"This is weird. A good weird, but definitely weird."

"What do we do now?" he mused. Then from everywhere a voice sounded but faraway, like from a badly connected phone call. 

_Once you have merged, you need to have complete unification of idea. Know what you want to do, then will it to happen._

"Good timing, Max." Adrien thought, to himself, but the sound of it echoed all around. "Oh, right merged minds"

"What are you even going on about, Chat?"

"Just we have merged our minds, so all our thoughts are shared, cool right? Don't think anything naughty." He laughed. Apparently, you can still laugh as the sound of it echoed around them, or the ‘where’ where they thought they were.

Some thoughts flickered around them quickly cut off. Was that blonde hair and green eyes? Chat Noir's mask, a familiar pink room. Faces of friends flickered by before everything was silent again. 

"I hate you," she sounded disgruntled. They floated together for a moment, wavering along the edge between Yin and Yang, their duality keeping them apart, even so merged. "This is up to you, Chat. I'm doing this for you." There was a warmth to her words that felt different here than out in their bodies. He pushed that notion away for another time. 

"I don’t want to change the world. I don’t want to alter history. If none of this happened in the first place, we would create a paradox and possibly break the universe. "

"Wouldn't want to do that." 

"Oh, Ha. Ha." their mirth mirrored across the border between them. "I wouldn't change my time with you, as Chat Noir, for anything. I don't want to lose that. I think we should just reverse the last wish. We know what it was, or I am pretty sure I know. We need to wish Gabriel Agreste back to life, and make the price come from Emilie Agreste. Oh god, I can't believe I'm doing this. "

"Adrien?" She sounded so shocked.

"Oh shit. Why am I so stupid?"

"To be fair we are literally in each other's minds right now. " The sound of her voice clicked finally in his mind, the faces, the room, the sweetness like macaroons. 

"Marinette?"

"Yep, cat's out of the bag I guess."

"You took my pun." 

"Focus, cat boy. We have the wish, to at this time bring your father back to life in exchange for your mother. Are you sure?"

"Would everyone stop asking me if I'm sure. I am sure! She was dead before; she'd been gone for so long its wrong that she is back. It’s a perversion of the natural order. We are just making this right." He sounded sure but there was a mottle of worry echoing around them.

"Adrien, are you sure? We could stop."

"No. No, we need to do this. If she got her hands on the miraculous, who knows what damage she could do. She should have been gone ten years ago."

Marinette's side curled against his, waves of comfort emanating through him. He sighed without breath, "Let's do this." 

Their sides pressed together their thoughts merged into one singled thought, the wish. The desperate wish that Gabriel Agreste was whole, alive, and well. Knowing that the cost of one life, was another in return. Balance must be kept. The price was to be Emilie. The thought merged into nothingness. 

Outside their shared mind, Pegasus, King Monkey, Carapace, and Rena Rouge watched, their friends until they could watch no longer. Mayura watched open mouthed her eyes brimming with hope, she’d seen that light before. In the space between their seated forms a light grew, enveloping the duo, and spilling brilliant white light, so white it held all the colors at the same time. They all had to look away at the intensity. 

There was a blast, like a shock wave, exploding out from the same place. It threw Ladybug and Chat Noir away from each other. Their bodies fell limp and weak to the ground. They were still near to each other, their bodies falling, so that Ladybug's head rested near Chat's knees. His form mirrored hers. If viewed from above it would look like the two halves of yin and yang. The transformations dropped spitting exhausted kwami onto the ground. The superheroes looked on in surprise at the forms of their friends’ secret identities, which revealed that they were actually their friends.

"Did you know?" Carapace asked Rena, who shook her head mutely. 

"What did they do?" Mayura kneeled at Adrien's side, one hand pressing to his neck, wilting with relief as she felt his heartbeat strong and steady.

There was a retching noise. The five looked around searching for the source of the sound. 

"Over here," Monkey king called looking behind one of the bushes. Gabriel Agreste lay panting on the ground, his glass askew and pushing into his forehead. He looked outwardly fine but for the fact he seemed to have been put through the ringer. Monkey King squatted down and helped him to sit. Mayura pushed Monkey out of the way, forgetting to be kind in her haste. She fell to her knees next to Gabriel, her hands reaching out hesitantly, stopping short. Her fingers did not touch him as though she was afraid he would disappear like one of Rena's illusions. His steely gray eyes opened slowly.

"Mayura?" Tears brimmed in her eyes at the sound of his voice. She hastily called off Duusu, dropping the transformation to touch him with her own hands. Nathalie's hands. His hair was falling loose about his face which was smudged with dirt, his glasses sat crooked on his nose, but she didn't care. He was there. Her fingers brushed his hair back as big tears fell from her eyes.

"Nathalie." The voice was so tender, and, in such awe, it melted the hearts of everyone in the room. Gabriel's hand rose to brush away the tears tracking her cheeks, even as more kept falling. Her fingers slid against his warm skin, prickly in need of a shave, and he leaned into the touch. All of her breath whooshed out of her lungs as she threw her arms around him, his arms curling around her trembling form in a tight embrace. 

"Gabriel," Her voice was soft, be echoed in the cavernous room. If the others never knew true love, they knew it now. The pure emotion that filled her voice was, the truest form of romantic love. Nathalie and Gabriel just held each other, cheek to cheek, it felt so raw and powerful. The moment was so intimate and heart wrenching that the others felt guilty watching.

Adrien and Marinette were sitting up, all actions mirrored as they pressed hands to their heads, which were mightily throbbing. 

"Let's never do that again," Marinette said, having to clap a hand over her mouth. 

"Agreed," Adrien breathed tight controlled breaths, his throat working. He looked out, seeing only the crowd of his friends, and Nathalie still clinging to Rena. "Did it work?" 

Adrien managed to stand, offering a hand to Marinette. She was able to get to her feet, but she leaned heavily on him, her legs still greatly unsteady. His arm wrapped around her waist as her head tucked against his neck. 

"So, are we telling everyone or-?" Rena tapped at her chin; her eyebrow quirked teasingly. 

"What?" the duo asked in unison. Rena stifled a laugh. They looked around and quickly realized that they were no longer transformed. Marinette's mouth made a little o. Her cheeks filled with air which she released a moment later resignedly.

"I don’t know that Ladybug and Chat Noir will be needed, in the future." Adrien said. He looked over his shoulder at his father and Nathalie, the were kissing tears coating both of their cheeks. A warmth filled his chest. Adrien looked back to his friends. "But perhaps we could keep this between us."

"Of course, dude.' Carapace punched his shoulder amid the chorus of agreement. 

"Yeah, but are you finally going to admit you love each other?" Rena half behind his shoulder already danced behind Carapace with a "protect me," just in time because Marinette lunged for her. 

"Wait, what?" Adrien asked. A little fire of hope lit. He looked between the five figures in front of him. 

"Marinette had a crush on you for the entirety of college." Rena peeked around the other side of Carapace from Marinette as the girl squawked. 

"Round the same time, you had that killer crush on Ladybug," Carapace added, Marinette ceased trying to get Rena, her big eyes turning on Adrien. He flushed a bright red, all the way up his ears. 

"Yeah, but Marinette-" Rena was cut off by Marinette's hand going over her mouth. 

"Finish that sentence and they'll never find your body." the normally sweet face of the baker's daughter was fearsome. Rena open her mouth and licked up Marinette's palm. She yelped and pulled her hand back wiping it on her leg.

"You love me," Rena blew her a kiss. They fell into laughter.

"Marinette," Adrien reached out to take her hand, he had so much he wanted to say. Tell her that he loved her, Marinette, not Ladybug, well not only Ladybug thought that had only been a silly crush. Marinette the whole Marinette, mistakes and Ladybug and all, was the most amazing person he'd ever known. The years had taught him much. However, before he could do more than open his mouth.

"Adrien?" It was Gabriel, with Nathalie plastered to his side. She was helping him to stand as his strength slowly returned, while conveniently not letting go. Adrien met them halfway, the grass rustling under his steps. Gabriel reached out, wanting to touch him, but stopped short, much like Nathalie had done. His voice was so quiet and subdued, "I'm so sorry, for everything."

"Father," Adrien closed the space between them throwing his arms around both his father and Nathalie. Nathalie unwrapped one arm to pull Adrien closer as three of them hugged. It felt like home, being squished between his father and Nathalie in the tightest hug off all time. His heart had never felt so full. His home was right here. He looked over his shoulder toward Marinette where she watched, a teary smile on her face. He held out his hand for her. Even with the question on her face she took his hand, leaning her head against his.

He had made the right choice.

It was done. It was all over now. Hawkmoth is gone, for good. Paris is safe. Finally.

And he was home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for coming this far with me. One last chapter, an epilogue, will be coming in a few days.
> 
> I'd love to hear what you think!


	13. Hawk Moth no more

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happily Ever After is something that can happen, even for retired villains.

Nathalie grasped the flowing white skirt in her hands, gathering the soft fabric in gentle grip to lift it free from around her feet in order to turn and look at her reflection. She reached up tucking a piece of hair that had fallen from her chignon back behind her ear. All the hair spray in the world couldn’t make her belligerent red streak behave today of all days. Her sister stood at her elbow ready with another bobby pin

There was a knock at the door. Gathering her skirt again, she turned toward the door dropping the skirt and smoothing it nervously as Adrien entered carrying a small box

"Wow, Nathalie." Adrien's jaw dropped as he took in her full glory. "You look amazing.

Nathalie felt her cheeks flush, she bit her lip looking down at the white dress, her fingers smoothing over the fabric again. The light from the windows, lit the room and made the white gown glow. It made her look ethereal, with a halo of sunlight outlining her form.

"You look very sharp," She nodded at his crisp black suit. He adjusted his tie scowling a little. Her sister marched over swatting his hand away and fixed the knot. He pouted at her, which made Nathalie laugh. There was a call from the hallway which sounded like one of Nathalie's nephews, her sister reminded her of the time with a pointed look and stepped into the hall in the swish of red skirts and the sound of an irate mother. They watched her leave bemused.

"Dad wanted you to have this before the ceremony but," Adrien turned back to Nathalie holding out the box, "bad luck for the groom to see the bride and all."

"Thank you, Adrien." She took the little box, giving his hand a squeeze. "He really needs to stop giving me things, I swear." Nathalie laughed merrily, rolling her eyes affectionately. Opening the little box her mouth fell open. Shimmering in the light filling the room sat a pair of earrings, on the velvet bed. Delicate filigreed feathers of white gold. The rubies set in the studs and feather tips dancing little spots of red light all around. They looked like peacock feathers fit for Nathalie, the rubies matching the red streak of her hair and coincidentally one of the wedding colors. Fingers trembling, she traced the edge of one of the feathers, her eyes swimming.

Dabbing carefully at her eyes, as to not smear her makeup she turned to the mirror. She replaced the pearls in her ears with the feathers. Her fingers trailed down the drape of the earring that now glittered in her ear. They felt light on her ears and just fit perfectly with her dress. She looked into the background of the mirror to meet Adrien's eye where he watched over her shoulder.

"I was just wondering," he said, "what I should call you now?"

She quirked and eyebrow at him. He laughed. Nathalie shook her head with a slight shrug of her shoulder as she reached for her veil.

"Mom?" He asked archly. Her hands dropped away from the veil as if singed, her neck wrenching as she looked at Adrien sharply. "You have always been there for me, Nathalie, and now you are marrying my father so" He trailed off grinning. He cleared his throat, "For as long as I can remember, you have felt more like my mother than, " his voice caught, "Emilie."

She had to gather up her skirt again, while trying hard not to wrinkle it. She moved over to the young man who now stood taller than her. Reaching out she fixed his hair with a motherly touch.

"You've always been a part of my heart, Adrien. You can call me whatever you want." He pulled her into a gentle hug careful not to crush her dress. "Now, help me get that veil on," there was a shriek from outside, "before you make sure that your father doesn't have a break down."

Adrien laughed. The veil was a filmy diaphanous thing that trailed about his fingers as he carried over to Nathalie. Under her directions he got the thing situated carefully and secure on her head. She checked herself in the mirror, her hand flapping him away.

"You'd better go see what that was before your father has a conniption, I bet he's already yelling. "

"He just wants everything to be perfect for you," Adrien called sound much too much like his alter ego, Chat Noir, like a cat in the cream, as he closed the door.

She made an indelicate noise in the back of her throat as she grinned once more. Her fingers reached up to touch the filigree feathers, her smile softened into something more besotted. It was actually happening. She was, her eyes flicked to the clock, in half an hour marrying Gabriel Agreste. Finally. 

After everything that happened, this had always felt so far away, like a distant dream that was only ever the distant future or not at all. After Gabriel died, Nathalie thought that she might never be happy again, but here she was the happiest she had ever been. Cheerfully expecting whatever may come in the future.

Her heart felt so full, full to bursting, one of her hands curled lightly against her chest as she peeked out the window trying to hide behind the curtain but see what was happening in the back yard. There were drapes of white fabric covering the yard, with little twinkle lights turning the place into a fairytale. Gabriel stood in the middle of it surrounded by chairs and people his arms gesticulating wildly. His suit jacket was thrown over a chair so as to not get mussed even though the rest of him was because he insisted on being so animate. She stifled a little giggle pressing her the tip of her tongue against her teeth.

Never did she think she would be this happy, ever. She leaned her head against the window, watching as Adrien ran out from the house toward his father. There was an adamant conversation in which Adrien finally persuaded Gabriel to stop trying to reorganize the whole yard, again. Gabriel looked up at the house as he was led away, squeaking she ducked behind the curtain hoping he hadn't seen her watching. Bad luck and all.

It took time, after what Adrien and Marinette had done, to mop up all the mess left behind, to deal with the true passing of Emilie, and the return of Gabriel. The world settled into a state of clam as Hawkmoth was gone, permanently retired, not that the rest of the world knew that. They thought that Emilie Agreste had been Hawkmoth all along. The ten-year battle culminating in the fight of Black Cat/Hawkmoth against the superheroes. Nathalie had managed to spin it for the media that Emilie was the villain the whole time. The superheroes agreed with this, letting Gabriel go free from punishment, perhaps because he had already been through a lot, or the fact the Chat Noir was his son. The miraculous had been safely back in the miracle box. 

As for the Agreste family, they had to figure out just how to work in the new configuration. It took effort and more conversations about feelings than Gabriel necessarily wanted to have but they made it work. It also made space for the something between Gabriel and Nathalie. It was new figuring out how to have a real relationship. Adrien insisted, in fact, that they had his blessing. She even suspected that Adrien occasionally manufactured "match making" accidents.

It was all worth it, because here they were now.

"Nat, it's time." Her sister's voice called from the doorway. Nicholette reached up fussing with the veil, her fingers adjusting the drape of the gauzy veil.

"Nico," Nathalie laughed and pulled away, whacking her older sister gently with her bouquet. Her sister gasped greatly affronted and inspected the flowers. They were fine.

"I just want this day to be perfect," Nicholette sniffed as she gathered up her own nosegay. "Honestly, I never thought this day would come, you were seriously living up to that Sancœur name."

Nathalie growled playfully at her sister aiming to hit her again, her sister dodged. They laughed like only sisters can, slightly aggrieved but still amused. Nicholette pulled her into a quick embrace, careful not to muss any of their careful preparations.

"Are you ready?"

"More than I have ever been."

As the doors to the back yard opened Nathalie blinked in the light, her bouquet held before her. It took a moment for her eyes to focus on Gabriel, standing there looking so handsome in his hand designed suit, the dark color suited him. His expression was one of euphoric awe, mouth falling open yet curling into a contented smile. Adrien nudged his father, as she rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, and he inhaled as though he had stopped breathing. Gabriel stepped forward, reaching out to take her hands. His touch felt like home, her fingers curled around his in a tight squeeze. Nathalie's sister relieved her of her bouquet, her big sisterly grin unable to be contained.

It was a small ceremony, but it was everything that Nathalie had ever wanted.

"I now pronounce you man and wife."

Their small crowd cheered, even Audrey Bourgeois, but none so loud as Adrien.

It was only the start, the start of their new chapter free from villainy and Emilie's oppressive memory. It was the start of their blissful future.

As the music played Gabriel held her close, she leaned into his hold her joy making the smile impossible to keep off her face. One of her hands rested on his chest, the silk of his red tie smooth under her touch. The subtle thump of his heart threaded against her fingers, as it beat in time with her own. Time slowed, as though at the center of a black hole, time around them was no longer passing in the same way. His fingers curled around hers where they rested on his chest, the cool feel of the new ring on her finger warmed under his touch. Everything was perfect.

Boom. Black smoke rose into the sky to the east. The Eiffel Tower probably.

Looking around Nathalie nearly pulled away, but Gabriel pulled her back with a little smile as he nodded at Adrien and Marinette, his date. The two snuck away followed by the sudden appearance of Ladybug and Chat Noir. Turning back, she smiled tilting up to kiss her husband, to the cheers of the guests. It wasn't their job nor their fault. Let the heroes deal with it.

This was happily ever after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. It is done. Thank you, for reading this. Thank you for all of your comments, questions, and kudos.


End file.
